Trump Signals Doubts Over Zelensky’s Peace Proposal As Mar-a-Lago Meeting Looms
President Donald Trump is signaling firm control over ongoing peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, bluntly dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s newly unveiled 20-point proposal ahead of their scheduled Sunday meeting at Mar-a-Lago.
“He doesn’t have anything until I approve it,” Trump told Politico, underscoring that no plan moves forward without U.S. authorization.
“We’ll see what he’s got,” the president added, according to reports.
Despite the pointed remarks, Trump struck an optimistic tone about the upcoming talks, saying he expects his meeting with Zelenskyy — and future discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin — to be productive.
“I think it’s going to go good with him,” Trump said of Zelenskyy. “I think it’s going to go good with Putin.”
Trump also made clear that he remains fully engaged in direct diplomacy with Moscow, stating he is prepared to meet with Putin “as much I want,” reinforcing his hands-on approach to ending the conflict.
Zelenskyy’s latest proposal outlines a 20-point framework that would effectively freeze the war along current front lines. The plan reportedly allows Ukraine to pull back troops from the eastern front, establishing demilitarized buffer zones in contested areas.
Zelenskyy revealed details of the proposal earlier this week, saying it would also address management of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and questions surrounding territorial control of the Donbas region, which Moscow claims as its own. The plan further calls for Russian forces to withdraw from a designated area of Donetsk.
In recent days, Zelenskyy met with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, describing the sit-down as a “good conversation.” A senior U.S. official told Axios the discussions were “positive and constructive,” claiming the Trump administration has achieved more diplomatic progress in the past two weeks than the previous year of stalled negotiations.
Russia, however, has already signaled resistance to Zelenskyy’s proposal ahead of the Florida meeting.
On Friday, Moscow accused Zelenskyy and his European Union allies of attempting to sabotage a U.S.-brokered peace framework. The Kremlin said foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov held phone talks with U.S. officials, while Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov publicly criticized Kyiv’s position.
“Our ability to make the final push and reach an agreement will depend on our own work and the political will of the other party, especially in a context where Kyiv and its sponsors, notably within the European Union, who are not in favor of an agreement, have stepped up efforts to torpedo it,” Ryabkov said on Russian television.
Ryabkov added that the proposal drafted with Zelenskyy’s involvement “differs radically” from points previously outlined by U.S. and Russian officials earlier this month.
“Without an adequate resolution of the problems at the origin of this crisis, it will be quite simply impossible to reach a definitive accord,” he said.
According to Ryabkov, any final agreement must remain within the parameters established by Trump and Putin during their August meeting in Alaska or “no accord can be reached.”
In November, reports indicated that Ukraine had already agreed to a U.S.-backed peace proposal with only “minor details” left unresolved, a U.S. official told CBS News at the time. Senior Ukrainian official Rustem Umerov appeared to confirm the development, writing on X that Kyiv had reached agreement on the “core terms” of the American plan during talks in Geneva.
Zelenskyy was expected to travel to the White House later that month to finalize the deal.
Separately, the United States and Russia have held undisclosed talks in Abu Dhabi, according to Reuters and the Financial Times, as the Trump administration continues to press forward with its evolving peace initiative, Newsweek reported.
The original 28-point U.S. proposal — which Russia viewed favorably — was later “refined” following U.S.–Ukraine discussions in Geneva to address Kyiv’s concerns that the initial framework leaned too heavily toward Moscow. The most recent version of the plan under negotiation now contains 19 points.
As the Mar-a-Lago meeting approaches, Trump is making one thing unmistakably clear: peace talks will move on American terms — and only with his approval.