Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a meeting with US President Donald Trump will take place in the near future, pointing to progress in talks aimed at ending the almost four-year war with Russia.
Writing on X on Friday, Zelenskyy said both sides had agreed on a high-level meeting and stressed that Kyiv was not wasting time. He added that many important decisions could be taken before the New Year.
The Ukrainian leader made the remarks a day after saying he had a good conversation with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as Washington steps up diplomatic efforts to push for an end to the war.
Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic track, but the talks face major differences between Moscow and Kyiv. Zelenskyy has said Ukraine could consider withdrawing troops from parts of its eastern industrial region as part of a peace plan, if Russia also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone under international monitoring.
Russia, however, has not shown willingness to withdraw from the territories it has occupied. Moscow has instead demanded that Ukraine give up the remaining areas it controls in the Donbas region, a condition Kyiv has rejected. Russia currently holds most of Luhansk and about 70 percent of Donetsk.
Fighting continued on the ground. One person was killed and three others injured when a guided aerial bomb hit a house in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, local officials said. Overnight Russian drone attacks left parts of the southern city of Mykolaiv without electricity, while energy and port facilities were damaged in the Black Sea city of Odesa.
Ukraine also said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. The Ukrainian military said the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region was hit, with multiple explosions reported. A firefighter was wounded while putting out the blaze, according to regional authorities.
Kyiv says its long-range strikes on Russian refineries are aimed at cutting Moscow’s oil export revenue, while Russia continues attacks on Ukraine’s power system, which Ukrainian officials say are intended to deprive civilians of heat, light and water during winter.