Trump, After Putin Call, Hosts Zelenskyy For Latest Round Of Peace Talks

PALM BEACH, Florida — President Donald Trump expressed optimism about making progress on a deal to end the war in Ukraine as he welcomed President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to his Mar-a-Lago estate on Sunday.

But just as he expressed his belief that Ukraine’s revised 20-point peace plan offered “the makings of a deal,” he brushed off a question about whether he would sign a commitment to providing Ukraine specific postwar security guarantees, signaling that there are still several hurdles to overcome.

“No one knows what the security agreement will say," Trump shot back at a reporter. “What a dumb question.”

Trump, who made initial comments as he welcomed Zelenskyy in the driveway of his Florida estate, said he didn’t have a hard deadline for a deal but asserted that talks are now in the “final stages.”

“We’re going to see — otherwise [the war is] going to go on for a long time. It will either end or it’s going to go on a long time and millions of additional people are going to be killed, millions.”

He intended to call Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he already spoke with on Sunday morning, again after sitting down with Zelenskyy.

Zelenskyy has worked in recent weeks with European leaders and Trump’s top two interlocutors, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, to revise an initial 28-point plan offered by the White House.

Trump and Zelenskyy sat inside an ornate dining room in Mar-a-Lago for their bilateral meeting, flanked by their respective delegations. The U.S. side included Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, as well as Witkoff and Kushner.

Zelenskyy said it was important to travel to the U.S. to discuss the plan with Trump in person to try to make progress on several unresolved issues, including territorial concessions in the Donbas, future control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and nailing down the specific American security guarantees that would serve as a deterrent to Russia eventually resuming the war.

Zelenskyy, who Trump has pressured at times over the past year to “settle” the war, is again striving to demonstrate that Ukraine is far more willing to make concessions in pursuit of peace than Russia has seemed to be.

“We want peace, and Russia demonstrates a desire to continue the war,” Zelenskyy told reporters on Saturday prior to arriving in Florida. “If anyone — whether the U.S. or Europe — is on Russia’s side, this means the war will continue.”

Zelenskyy has also agreed to hold elections in Ukraine if a peace plan can be reached, a Russian demand that Trump has latched onto.

The president said that there would be economic benefits for Ukraine once the war ends but was noncommittal when asked if the billions in Russia frozen assets would go to Ukraine to rebuild after the war ends.

He appeared optimistic about peace talks while greeting the Ukrainian president, repeating his claim that both Ukraine and Russia want to see an end to the war. He also praised his European counterparts, calling them “terrific people” who want to get a peace deal done.

Veronika Melkozerova contributed to this report.