Trump meets Zelensky on Sunday.. and Kyiv declares state of alert

A Ukrainian official said that President Donald Trump will meet his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, while Ukrainian authorities declared a state of alert in the capital Kyiv.

The Ukrainian President said that many issues can be resolved before the end of the year, amid Washington's intensification of diplomatic efforts to end the war with Russia, and clarified -in a post on the "X" platform- that sensitive issues, including any possible concessions on Ukrainian lands, must be discussed at the level of heads of state.

Zelensky had conducted, yesterday Thursday, talks with Steve Witkoff, the special envoy of the American President, and Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law.

The Ukrainian President indicated that some documents related to a broader framework for ending the conflict and ensuring the reconstruction of Ukraine "almost ready", while some are "completely ready".

Zelensky earlier this week revealed a draft peace plan of 20 points, describing it as the main framework for ending the war.

Although the plan includes security guarantees for Kyiv to prevent any future Russian aggression, disagreement remains with Washington regarding the lands that Moscow demands Ukraine to concede, in addition to the future of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant under Russian forces' control.

In the context, a Russian newspaper reported that President Vladimir Putin informed some senior Russian businessmen that he might be open to exchanging some lands controlled by Russian forces in Ukraine, but he wants the entire Donbas region.

Andrei Kolesnikov, the newspaper's Kremlin correspondent, said that Putin briefed businessmen on the details of the plan in a meeting held in the Kremlin late Wednesday evening.

Kolesnikov wrote in the newspaper that Putin wants the entire Donbas, but -away from that region- "does not rule out a partial exchange of lands from the Russian side".

On the ground, Ukrainian authorities declared a state of alert in the capital Kyiv following Russian attacks that targeted several areas and resulted in the death of 4 people and injury of others, according to local authorities, which clarified that the attacks particularly affected the Kherson, Donetsk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

The Ukrainian army said that its forces engaged in 121 combat clashes with Russian forces along the front line during the past hours, adding that Ukrainian units targeted areas of Russian forces' gathering, command points, and air defense means, with significant losses recorded among the attacking forces, and that the fighting focused particularly on the eastern and southern fronts.

These developments come amid the continuation of the war since February 24, 2022, where Moscow conditions the end of it on Kyiv's renunciation of joining Western military alliances, which Ukraine considers an infringement on its sovereignty and interference in its internal affairs.