Crucial talks to end the war in Ukraine took place between Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in the US on Sunday.
The meeting came after several months of back-and-forth discussions between Kyiv, Washington, Moscow, and Brussels, as world leaders attempted to broker a deal that would bring the nearly four-year conflict to an end.
Following the talks in Florida, Mr Trump said security guarantees for Ukraine were “close to 95 per cent” complete even as he cautioned that “thorny issues” remained unresolved. A key unresolved issue was the control of territory in the Donbas region, he said.
Mr Zelensky, however, claimed security guarantees involving the US and Ukraine were “100 per cent agreed”, while an arrangement between the US, Europe and Ukraine was “almost agreed”.
The Ukrainian leader had emerged from talks with European allies in Berlin earlier this month with a framework for security guarantees he said was needed to end the war.
The US is now offering Nato-style protections, meaning the main barrier to peace is territory, something Mr Zelensky says he cannot and will not give up.
Mr Zelensky said ahead of the talks he believed the plan was “90 per cent complete”.
Mr Trump had said that they were “closer now than we have been ever” to reaching an agreement on a peace deal.
But any agreement on the revised 20-point plan still depends on Russia, which is yet to comment on all the details of the proposals.
Russia remains unyielding, shooting down any prospect of returning land captured by its forces or accepting peacekeepers in Ukraine before seeing the full set of proposals.
Here, we look at what we know about the plan so far and its potential problems.
Ukraine gives up on Nato
Mr Zelensky offered to give up on Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato as he held five hours of intense talks with US negotiators on 14 December.
Mr Trump has opposed the idea since taking office for the second term and it may not have been on the table for some time.
But security experts say it shows the US that Mr Zelensky is negotiating in good faith.
Brett Bruen, a former foreign policy adviser in the Barack Obama administration, said it was “a way for Zelensky to contrast Ukraine’s willingness for significant concessions for peace at a time when Moscow has been short on any significant concessions”.
Kyiv receives ‘Nato-style’ guarantees
Ukraine is still asking for clear security guarantees, which Europe is offering to front with a multinational force supplied by members of the “Coalition of the Willing” and supported by the US.
After Mr Zelensky claimed that 90 per cent of the issues with his draft peace plan had been resolved, Washington finally offered Kyiv safeguards modelled on Nato’s Article 5, allowing for collective defence, according to US officials.
It was a victory for Kyiv, with both Ukrainian and European leaders arguing that guarantees must come before any talk of land swaps.
Details are still scarce and it’s unclear what kind of response the US will be committed to should Russia break the peace.
US officials said it was the “platinum standard”, but would not be on offer forever.
Russia still says it will not accept what it calls Nato peacekeepers in Ukraine under any circumstances.
US optimistic about progress on territory
Ukraine is bound by its constitution not to give up any land, and Mr Zelensky insists he is not willing or able to concede the land Russia demands.
On Sunday, Mr Trump said the proposal to turn eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region, much of which is under Russian control, into a demilitarised zone remained unresolved.
“Some of that land has been taken,” he said after the meeting with Mr Zelensky. “Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months.”
Russia controls about 75 per cent of the Donetsk oblast and nearly all of neighbouring Luhansk. Together, the two oblasts make up the Donbas.
Moscow is demanding Ukraine withdraw from the rest of Donbas still under its control, while Kyiv says the area can instead become a free economic zone policed by Ukrainian forces.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov previously said that Moscow wasn’t willing to make any concessions on the Donbas, Crimea, or “Novorossiya”, an imperial distinction for the land north of the Black Sea.
But he was positive about the progress made in talks prior to Christmas. "I think 25 December 2025 will remain in all our memories as a milestone when we truly came close to a solution,” he told Russian state TV on Boxing Day. “But whether we can make the final push and reach an agreement depends on our work and the political will of the other side.”
Mr Zelensky hailed the progress but acknowledged that the issue was “a painful one, because Russia wants what it wants, and we can't go any further”.
Ukraine’s future in the EU
US officials said before Christmas that Russia would accept Ukraine joining the EU as part of their agreement to end the war.
A senior source told the AFP news agency that they could see Ukraine joining as soon as January 2027, but diplomats in Brussels said the idea was “unrealistic”.
The issue remains controversial in parts of Europe, but the bloc may back the move. Top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said last month that Ukraine’s membership would be a “major security guarantee” in its own right.
On Sunday, Mr Trump said security guarantees for Ukraine were “95 per cent done”, but stopped short of committing to American troop deployment or specific logistical support to deter future attacks.
He also raised the possibility of trilateral talks involving the US, Russia and Ukraine, saying such discussions could take place “at the right time”.
Sharing power, literally
One of the 28 points included in the original US draft – since whittled down to 20 – was the idea of sharing power produced at Europe’s largest nuclear power station.
Russia has held the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant since the start of the conflict.
An American official said following the Berlin talks that they were close to finding an agreement whereby both sides could share power, although it was not clear how this would work in practice.
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