US security guarantees for Ukraine have been outlined for a period of 15 years, with the possibility of extension, Volodymyr Zelenskyy told journalists on Monday, providing more details about what was discussed and agreed at his meeting with US President Donald Trump on Sunday in Florida.
During the joint press conference after the talks at Mar-a-Lago, the Ukrainian president said that the US security guarantees for Ukraine were “100% agreed”.
“We have great achievements, the 20-point peace plan is 90% agreed and US-Ukraine security guarantees are 100% agreed,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “US, Europe and Ukraine security guarantees are almost agreed. The military dimension is 100% agreed.”
He later explained to a group of journalists that the guarantees are indeed “strong, although “for now, they are not permanent.”
“I told (Trump) that the war has been going on for almost 15 years, and we would really like the guarantees to be longer,” Zelenskyy said.
“I told him that we would like to consider guarantees for 30, 40, or even 50 years, and that would be a historic decision by President Trump. The president said he would think about it.”
“Without security guarantees, realistically, this war will not end.”
Ukraine’s ‘sequence plan’
Both presidents said there is no deadline for the next steps in the plan, with Trump indicating he expects to see more progress within the next few weeks.
Zelenskyy explained that the delegations did develop a “sequence plan”.
“We developed a sequence plan, a step-by-step order of actions, our strategy, when and what we want to finalise and agree with our partners.”
The next meeting at the advisor level among the US, Ukraine and European representatives will take place “in the coming days,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Kyiv has already contacted all the advisors involved in the process.
“We will do everything to ensure that this meeting finally takes place in Ukraine,” the Ukrainian president stated.
Next, the documents will be prepared at the advisor level and ”there will be a meeting at the level of European leaders, first with Ukraine, in such a broad composition, and this is the ‘Coalition of the Willing Plus,’” Zelenskyy explained.
He said the discussion about the meeting started “immediately after the meeting with President Trump.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that Kyiv’s allies will meet in Paris in early January to “finalise each country’s concrete contributions” to the security guarantees on the table.
After this meeting, the documents are expected to be agreed upon “at the level of all leaders,” Zelenskyy said, and only then will the meeting be scheduled with Trump and the European leaders.
“We are all determined to ensure that these meetings, which I have told you about, take place in January,” the Ukrainian president added.
Zelenskyy also explained to the journalists in the presidential WhatsApp chat that after a meeting with Trump and the Europeans, “if everything goes step by step, there will be a meeting in one format or another with the Russians.”
“We emphasise this once again. We are ready for the appropriate formats, which we have already discussed.”
Is Moscow ready to meet?
Following the meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump, the Kremlin spokesperson said on Monday morning that Moscow’s demands have not changed.
Dmitry Peskov stated that Kyiv “must completely withdraw” its troops from the territories of Ukraine’s eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk — commonly known as the Donbas — including the areas Moscow forces never controlled.
Signalling the Kremlin’s reluctance to compromise or agree to any concessions to end its war against Ukraine, Peskov said the “fighting will stop” only if Ukraine withdraws from Donbas.
Zelenskyy said Moscow’s demands were nothing new.
“In their dreams, they want us to disappear from our own country altogether. These dreams have been around for many years,” he stated.
“But we have our own land, our own territorial integrity, our own state, and our own interests. We will act in accordance with Ukraine’s interests.”
He explained further that Kyiv’s 20-point “must be signed by four parties: Ukraine, Europe, America, and Russia.”
Days before the meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy unveiled a draft of the revised peace plan to end Russia’s all-out war, nearing its four-year mark.
The initial 28-point draft, which effectively pushed Ukraine toward capitulation, has been reworked into a 20-point framework.