FLASH
Shkruar nga PamfletiThe previous meeting between American and Ukrainian leaders, which took place in October, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy unsuccessfully asked his interlocutor to supply him with Tomahawk missiles, was not particularly friendly.
Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with Donald Trump in Florida today to present Ukraine's arguments and try to get the US president to sign the latest version of a peace plan aimed at ending the nearly four-year war with Russia.
The Ukrainian president, who arrives in the US with his latest proposals on the difficult territorial issue, will have "nothing until I approve it," the US president told Politico on Friday, setting the stage.
However, Donald Trump said: "I think he'll do well with him. I think he'll do well with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin," with whom he plans to meet "soon."
His Ukrainian counterpart expressed hope on Saturday, during a stopover in Canada, that the meeting would be "very constructive" and had spoken with his European partners beforehand.
The latter assured him of their “full support,” according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In Canada, Zelensky secured new financial assistance of 2.5 billion Canadian dollars (1.5 billion euros) from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Donald Trump will host Volodymyr Zelensky at 1:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. Albanian time) at Mar-a-Lago.
This private residence in Palm Beach, where the 79-year-old Republican is vacationing, has become a kind of annex to the White House.
He is also expected to welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu there on Monday.
"The whole world is coming," the presenter said with delight, according to Politico.
The previous meeting between American and Ukrainian leaders, held in October, when Volodymyr Zelenskyy unsuccessfully asked his interlocutor to supply him with Tomahawk missiles, was not particularly warm.
The Florida summit comes after the Ukrainian president presented a new version of the US plan, which aims to end the war and was modified after talks with Ukraine, greatly annoying Moscow.
After an initial version that accepted many of Russia's demands, the Kremlin believes that with this latest version, Kiev is seeking to "destroy" the negotiations.
Florida meeting under the shadow of Russian bombing
On the eve of the Florida meeting, Moscow sent hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles to bomb Kiev and the region around the Ukrainian capital, killing two people and leaving more than a million households without electricity.
An attack that shows "Russia's response to our efforts for peace," Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday.
Donald Trump no longer hides his irritation over the prolongation of negotiations.
"He is very disappointed with both camps," his spokeswoman Caroline Levitt said on December 11.
On December 19, the US president pressured Ukraine to "move."
Will Volodymyr Zelensky convince him to send such a message to Moscow, as his latest version seems unacceptable to the Russians?
The 20-point document proposes a freeze on frontline positions without responding to the Russian demand for the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from the roughly 20% of the eastern Donetsk region that they still control.
And the new text no longer includes any legal obligation for Ukraine not to join NATO, another key Kremlin demand.
In addition to the fate of Donbas, the eastern Ukrainian region claimed by Moscow, and the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, which is occupied by Russian troops, in the south, the two leaders are expected to discuss security guarantees that the West could offer as part of a peace deal.
These "security guarantees must come at the same time as the end of the war," Volodymyr Zelensky insisted yesterday.
The US president has recently signaled that he believes Ukraine has every interest in freezing the front line as quickly as possible in the face of what he sees as an inevitable Russian advance on the ground. “Russia has the advantage. And it always has,” he said on December 8.
But peace must preserve Ukraine's "sovereignty" and "territorial integrity," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stressed yesterday after a telephone conversation with Volodymyr Zelensky.
In an interview with the Tass news agency broadcast early this morning, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that "the European Union has become the main obstacle to peace."
On the ground, the Ukrainian military command spoke of a "massive Russian attack with multiple rocket launchers" overnight in the city of Kherson, saying fires had broken out in infrastructure and residential areas.
Lini një Përgjigje