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Ukrainian president will discuss peace agreement with Trump at Mar-A-Lago
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Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed that he will meet with US President Donald Trump on Sunday in the latest push to secure a peace deal before the New Year.
The Ukrainian president said he would travel to Mar-A-Lago to meet with Trump and that his peace agreement was “90 per cent ready”.
Axios earlier reported that the Ukrainian president will meet with Trump at Mar-A-Lago, his personal residence, to discuss a peace agreement.
Earlier, he had hinted at progress on a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, following a “really good conversation” with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff on Christmas Day.
Ukraine said it used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday, reporting explosions at a site supplying fuel to Moscow’s forces.
The Ukrainian military said it targeted the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region, adding: “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit.”
Officials said the plant was one of southern Russia’s main producers of petrol products and was “directly involved in supplying the Russian Federation’s armed forces”.
Russian president Vladimir Putin told former US president George W Bush that Ukraine was a part of Russia, according to newly released transcripts.
The comments are said to have been made in April 2001, according to the Telegraph.
“What really happened? Soviet goodwill changed the world, voluntarily,” Putin is reported to have told Bush at a summit in Slovenia.
“And Russians gave up thousands of square kilometers of territory, voluntarily. Unheard of.”
He added: “Ukraine, part of Russia for centuries, given away. Kazakhstan, given away. The Caucasus too. Hard to imagine, and done by party bosses.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he had agreed to hold a meeting with US president Donald Trump in the near future, as diplomatic efforts intensify to bring an end to Ukraine’s war with Russia.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelensky wrote on social media platform X.
Ukraine unveiled the latest 20-point peace proposal brokered by the US to bring an end to the war with Russia on 25 December.
Ukrainian and US delegations reached a consensus on several critical issues in the latest round of talks in Miami.
However, Volodymyr Zelensky said sensitive issues around territorial control in the country’s eastern industrial heartland, along with the management of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP), remain unresolved.
Click here to see the full 20 point proposal.
Ukraine has announced that it used British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles to strike the Novoshakhtinsk oil refinery in Russia’s Rostov region.
Officials said that the targeted refinery was a major producer of petrol products and directly supplied the Russian Federation’s armed forces.
Separately, Ukrainian long-range drones hit oil product storage tanks in Temryuk, Krasnodar region, and a gas processing plant in Orenburg.
Russian officials confirmed that two tanks caught fire in Temryuk, with the blaze covering an area of approximately 2,000 square metres.
Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted at progress on a peace deal following discussions with Steve Witkoff, an envoy for US President Donald Trump.
Appearing to refer to Russian president Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Today, we all share one dream.And we make one wish – for all of us. ‘May he perish’, each of us may think to ourselves.
“But when we turn to God, of course, we ask for something greater, we ask for peace for Ukraine. We fight for it, we pray for it, we deserve it.”
Ukraine’s president Zelensky appears to wish death to Putin in Christmas message
Russian President Vladimir Putin instructed his foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, to speak to US members of the administration after Moscow received US. proposals about a possible Ukrainian peace deal, the Kremlin said.
It was agreed with the US to continue talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Putin envoy Kirill Dmitriev brought paper copies of US peace proposals back to Moscow after a meeting in Miami at the weekend – and the details were being analysed by the Kremlin, Peskov said.
“The information was analysed, and on behalf of President Putin, contact took place between representatives of the administrations of Russia and the United States,” Peskov said. “It was agreed to continue the dialogue.”
In a post shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Christmas yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he spoke to US President Trump’s envoys.
“We have some new ideas in terms of formats, meetings and of course, timing on how to bring a real peace closer.”
One person was killed and three others wounded when a guided aerial bomb struck a house in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said.
Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power. Energy and port infrastructure were also damaged by drones in the city of Odesa on the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it hit a major Russian oil refinery Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff reported its forces struck the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.
A firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire, according to Yuri Slyusar of the Rostov regional government in Russia.
Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.
Kyiv officials accused of Russia of trying to “weaponise winter” by attempting to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water.
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov said that Russia was “somewhat” delaying exports of weapons and military equipment to prioritise deliveries to its own armed forces, Interfax reported him saying on Friday.
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