Announcing the deal, Zelensky said “a lot can be decided before the New Year” as Washington continues its efforts to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.
“As for sensitive issues: we will discuss Donbass and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant. We will certainly discuss other issues as well,” he told reporters on the WhatsApp communication platform.
Russia wants Ukraine to withdraw from parts of the eastern Donetsk region, which its forces have failed to capture during nearly four years of war. Moscow seeks to gain complete control over the Donbass region, which consists of Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. However, Kiev wants the fighting to stop so that the current situation on the battlefield is frozen.
The United States of America, which is trying to find a compromise, proposed the establishment of a free economic zone on the territory that Ukraine would eventually leave. It is still not clear how that area would work in practice.
Territorial issues continue to be a stumbling block in the negotiations.
Zelensky said that any compromise regarding the territory should be decided by the Ukrainian people in a possible referendum. The Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, is located on the battlefield and operated by Russian forces.
Zelensky added that the purpose of the meeting with Trump was to “smooth things out” in the proposals and discuss potential agreements related to the Ukrainian economy. He said that he is not ready to say whether an agreement will be signed during his visit, but that Ukraine is open to it.
The agreement on security guarantees between Ukraine and the US is “almost ready”, and 90 percent of the draft 20-point plan has been completed, the Ukrainian president added, according to Hina.
Yuri Ushakov, an adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin, spoke with the Trump administration after Moscow received US proposals on a possible peace deal, the Kremlin said on Friday. The Russian newspaper Kommersant announced that Putin told some leading Russian entrepreneurs that he might be ready to exchange some territory held by Russian forces elsewhere in Ukraine, but that in return he wanted the entire Donbas.
(Vijesti.ba)
