Trump Meets With Zelenskiy After ‘Productive’ Call With Putin

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said he had a “good and very productive” phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin just before he began a face-to-face meeting with Ukraine’s president.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Trump are meeting Sunday at the US president’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida as he pushes for a peace deal in the long-running war.

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“I do believe we have the makings of a deal,” Trump said as he greeted Zelenskiy. “There will be a security agreement, it will be a strong agreement.” He added, “I think we’re in the final stages of talking.”

Zelenskiy thanked Trump for hosting him and said the two leaders will discuss the topic of potential territorial concessions by Ukraine.

Ahead of the Trump meeting, Zelenskiy met with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Halifax, Nova Scotia and held a flurry of calls with European leaders, including NATO chief Mark Rutte, to align their stance. Trump said that he plans to speak with Putin and with European leaders later Sunday.

Trump has ramped up pressure on Ukraine to make concessions and dangled promises of economic cooperation at Russia. While Zelenskiy has repeatedly declared his readiness for a ceasefire to allow space for peace negotiations, Putin has refused Trump’s calls for a truce without first having reached agreement on a deal.

Putin and Trump agreed to speak “promptly” to each other again by phone after the conclusion of the US president’s meeting with Zelenskiy, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said in an audio post on Telegram. Their initial call lasted for about 1 hour and 15 minutes, he said.

“The presidents of Russia and the US generally share similar views that the option proposed by the Ukrainians and Europeans for a temporary ceasefire — supposedly to prepare for a referendum or under other pretexts — only leads to prolonging the conflict,” Ushakov said.

“Donald Trump consistently emphasized the need to truly end the war as soon as possible, speaking about the impressive prospects for economic cooperation that would then open up for the US with both Russia and Ukraine,” he added.

Earlier Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called Europe “the main obstacle to peace,” saying leaders there, along with Ukraine, had shown no readiness for constructive talks.

Russia spent the weekend bombarding Ukraine, pounding Kyiv with hundreds of drones and missiles and carrying out a large strike on Kherson in Ukraine’s southeast. Parts of the capital have been left without power, with damage to energy infrastructure being assessed and emergency repairs underway.