Zelensky: “The U.S. has offered Ukraine 15 years of security guarantees”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday that during talks in Florida with Donald Trump on a revised peace plan, the United States offered Ukraine security guarantees for a period of 15 years. 
 

U.S. President Donald Trump said the agreement on this issue was “about 95%” complete, but the Ukrainian leader stated that he wanted guarantees lasting up to 50 years. 
 

Zelenskiy summarized territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant as the last unresolved matters but said little about the future of the disputed Donbas region. 
 

Russia had previously rejected key parts of the plan, but on Monday a Kremlin spokesperson said he agreed with Trump’s assessment that peace was approaching. 
Zelenskiy met U.S. President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday, December 28. At a joint press conference, both leaders said the meeting had been “great,” while also acknowledging that some difficult issues remained unresolved. 
Trump said it would become clear “within a week or two” whether negotiations to end the war would succeed. Zelenskiy stated that 90% of the agreement had been reached on a 20-point peace plan. 
 

While Zelenskiy said that agreement had been reached on security guarantees for Ukraine, Trump took a more cautious stance, saying the issue was 95% agreed and emphasizing that he expected European countries, with U.S. support, to “play a major role.” 
 

Zelenskiy had previously said he hoped to soften a U.S. proposal calling for the complete withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the eastern Donbas region. Both Trump and Zelenskiy said no agreement had been reached on this issue. “We haven’t solved it, but we’ve come much closer. This is a very difficult problem,” Trump said. 
 

Before Zelenskiy and his delegation arrived in Florida, Trump held a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump described the call as “productive,” while the Kremlin’s foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov called it “friendly.” 
Ushakov said Putin had argued that a 60-day ceasefire proposal by the European Union and Ukraine would prolong the war. The Kremlin also said Ukraine needed to make a decision on Donbas “without delay.” 
 

The U.S. president said he would speak with Putin again by phone after his meeting with Zelenskiy. The meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence came after heavy Russian bombardment of Kyiv over the weekend. 
 

Zelenskiy said these attacks were proof that Moscow “does not want peace.” 
Officials said two people were killed and 32 injured in a 10-hour missile and drone attack on Ukraine’s capital on Friday night. Russian attacks continued Saturday night as well. After a Russian missile strike on Kyiv, thousands were left without electricity. 
 

What issues were on the table? 
 

Control of Donbas in eastern Ukraine has so far been a major point of disagreement, but Zelenskiy now says a “free economic zone” could be an option. 
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region and around 99% of neighboring Luhansk. Together, these areas are known as Donbas. 
The Kremlin did not comment on Zelenskiy’s proposal to withdraw Ukrainian forces from eastern Donbas if Russia also withdrew. 
However, according to the state news agency Tass, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on December 27 that Ukraine was “in no hurry to resolve the conflict peacefully.” 
 

Putin added that if Kyiv did not want to resolve the conflict by peaceful means, Russia would achieve its goals through military means. 
The Ukrainian president expressed optimism about the new draft peace plan, calling it a “fundamental document for ending the war.” 
Speaking to journalists on December 26, he said 90% of the plan was complete: 
“Our job is to make sure it is 100% ready,” he said. 
However, in an interview with Politico, Trump warned that without his approval Zelenskiy “has nothing.” 
 

Trump also said he expected to see the new draft on Sunday and that he expected to meet with the Russian president “soon.” 
 

After talks with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, Zelenskiy said Moscow’s latest attack on Kyiv showed that “Putin does not want peace.” 
Zelenskiy also held a phone call with European leaders ahead of his meeting with Trump. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Kyiv had the “full support” of European and NATO leaders. 
 

What are the details of the latest plan? 
 

At a two-hour press conference on December 24, Zelenskiy outlined details of the 20-point peace plan. 
The plan includes the withdrawal of Ukrainian forces from eastern Ukraine, as demanded by Moscow, but Ukraine conditions this on Russia also withdrawing from the same areas. 
 

The plan provides security guarantees from the U.S., NATO, and Europe, and foresees a coordinated response if Russia invades Ukraine again. For the Donbas region, one of the main points of contention, Zelenskiy said creating a “free economic zone” could be a potential option. 
 

Zelenskiy said sensitive issues such as territory would need to be resolved “at the leaders’ level,” but emphasized that the final plan would give Ukraine strong security guarantees and an army of 800,000 personnel. 
 

“There are two options. Either the war continues, or a decision must be made on all potential economic zones,” Zelenskiy said. 
 

He also stressed that an economic zone should be established around the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and that Russia should withdraw from four other Ukrainian regions: Dnipropetrovsk, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Kharkiv. 
The 20-point peace plan was also discussed in talks held in Berlin. 
Drafted with contributions from Ukraine’s European allies, it consists of updates to an original 28-point plan that had been criticized as favoring Russia. 
 

Trump’s proposed plan 

Zelenskiy met on December 14 with U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. According to U.S. officials, Washington agreed to offer Kyiv legally binding security guarantees. 
 

Zelenskiy then met with European leaders on December 15, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. 
Washington presented a 28-point plan to Kyiv in November. According to reports, the final version included: The Ukrainian army would be limited to 800,000 personnel (up from 600,000 in the initial proposal). 
 

Ukraine could join NATO if all NATO countries approve. Not all currently support this. In the initial draft, NATO membership for Kyiv would have been removed as an option. 
 

NATO would not maintain a “permanent” troop presence in Ukraine. The initial draft said no NATO troops could be present at all. The U.S. could offer Ukraine a guarantee similar to NATO’s Article 5 against a Russian attack, meaning an attack on Ukraine would be considered an attack on all NATO members. This was not included in the initial draft. 
 

Ukraine would pledge not to retake lost territories by military means, instead seeking to recover them through negotiations. The initial draft recognized Crimea, Luhansk, and Donetsk as “de facto Russian territory.” 
 

Russian forces, which control about one-fifth of Ukrainian territory and continue to advance, have frequently targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as winter approaches. In 2022, the Kremlin annexed four Ukrainian regions (Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson) despite not having full control over them. 
Russia also annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. 
 

REFERENCE  
BBC News Turkish. (2025, December 28). Zelenskiy: “The U.S. offered Ukraine 15 years of security guarantees”. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cqxq41n4r49o