{"id":205701,"date":"2025-12-28T21:54:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-28T21:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/205701\/"},"modified":"2025-12-28T21:54:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-28T21:54:08","slug":"russia-ukraine-war-trump-says-zelenskyy-putin-serious-in-peace-talk-sprint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/205701\/","title":{"rendered":"Russia-Ukraine war: Trump says Zelenskyy, Putin \u2018serious\u2019 in peace-talk sprint"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI can say that I believe Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also, and I don\u2019t say that negatively. I think you probably have to,\u201d Trump said outside his estate.<\/p>\n

Before the talks began, Trump posted on social media that his conversation with Putin was \u201cvery productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking next to Zelenskyy, who stood a step below him at the entrance in front of waiting cameras, Trump said that an emerging agreement would also be good for Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be a security agreement. It\u2019ll be a strong agreement,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the European nations are very much involved in that. They\u2019ll be very much involved in protection, et cetera,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s advisors have previously floated the idea of offering Nato-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance\u2019s members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.<\/p>\n

Russia demands concessions<\/p>\n

The Kremlin gave a more pointed readout, saying that Trump agreed that a mere ceasefire \u201cwould only prolong the conflict\u201d as it demanded Ukraine compromise on territory.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy, who in the past has faced verbal attacks from Trump<\/a>, has sought to show willingness to work with the contours of the US leader\u2019s plans, but Putin has offered no sign that he will accept it.<\/p>\n

The meeting will be their first in-person encounter since October, when the US President refused to grant Zelenskyy\u2019s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At their October meeting, Trump refused Zelenskyy\u2019s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles as Trump again said that Putin was showing positive signs.<\/p>\n

European allies <\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s talks with Zelenskyy are expected to last an hour, after which the two presidents are scheduled to hold a joint call with the leaders of key European allies.<\/p>\n

Trump and Putin are also set to hold another phone call later Sunday.<\/p>\n

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who will join the call, wrote on X that the Russian attacks on Kyiv were \u201ccontrary to President Trump\u2019s expectations and despite the readiness to make compromises\u201d by Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

The drone and missile assault on Kyiv temporarily knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents during freezing temperatures.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy shows openness<\/p>\n

The revised peace plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, would stop the war along its current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull troops back from the east, allowing the creation of demilitarised buffer zones.<\/p>\n

As such, it contains Kyiv\u2019s most explicit acknowledgment yet of possible territorial concessions.<\/p>\n

It does not, however, envisage Ukraine withdrawing from the 20% of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls \u2013 Russia\u2019s main territorial demand.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy was careful to stay positive as he met Trump, saying: \u201cIt\u2019s very important to our teams talk about strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two leaders then entered the president\u2019s dining room surrounded by top aides, as Trump told the press to leave and have lunch.<\/p>\n

Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to \u201ctorpedo\u201d a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting, and recent battlefield gains \u2013 Russia announced on Saturday it had captured two more towns in eastern Ukraine \u2013 are seen as strengthening Moscow\u2019s hand in peace talks.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the authorities in Kyiv don\u2019t want to settle this business peacefully, we\u2019ll resolve all the problems before us by military means,\u201d Putin said.<\/p>\n

-Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI can say that I believe Ukraine has made some very strong attacks also, and I don\u2019t say…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1443,8843,3246,1559,2178,13574,5904,42,78,26477,43,2892,125620,2572,8217,8105,64794,3048,312,1238,44970,87086,57438,2846,40,38,41,39,2179,3461,6149,3608,6923,102,64795],"class_list":["post-205701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-about","tag-believed","tag-both","tag-called","tag-donald","tag-efforts","tag-final","tag-headlines","tag-in","tag-leaders","tag-news","tag-peace","tag-peacetalk","tag-president","tag-putin","tag-russia","tag-russiaukraine","tag-said","tag-says","tag-serious","tag-spoke","tag-sprint","tag-stages","tag-them","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-trump","tag-ukraine","tag-war","tag-were","tag-what","tag-with","tag-zelenskyy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=205701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}