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Kyiv, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that he’ll meet with President Trump “in the near future,” 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 social media. “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.
Mr. Trump has unleashed an extensive 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.
U.S. envoys have been holding talks with the Russian side as well. Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, traveled to Miami for meetings last weekend.
Despite the talks, in the days leading up to Christmas, Russia kept up its missile and drone bombardment of Ukrainian cities, while a Russian general was killed in a car bomb explosion in Moscow.
Overnight into Friday, Russian drone attacks on Mykolaiv and its suburbs left part of the city without power.
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.”
