Zelenskyy says meeting with Trump to happen 'in the near future'
[December 26, 2025]
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A meeting with U.S. President Donald
Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr
Zelenskyy said Friday, signaling progress in talks to end the nearly
four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the
highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelenskyy
wrote on X.
“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.
Zelenskyy's announcement came after he said Thursday he had a “good
conversation” with U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s
son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Trump has unleashed a diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts
have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.
Zelenskyy said Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the
country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war,
if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone
monitored by international forces.
Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said
Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace
talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of
withdrawal from land it has seized.
In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining
territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has
rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk —
the two areas that make up the Donbas.
On the ground, one person was killed and three others wounded when a
guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia region, local
officials said Friday.
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Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks during a media
conference at the EU Summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025.
(AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
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 damaged by drones in the city of Odesa
on the Black Sea.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery
Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk
refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were
recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.
Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded
when extinguishing the fire.
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. Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power
grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running
water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to “weaponize
winter.”
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