President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky shake hands at the start of a joint news conference following a meeting at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Ukraine and Russia are “closer than ever” to a peace deal, President Donald Trump said Sunday as he hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at his Florida resort.

He acknowledged, however, that the negotiations are complex and could still fail, leaving the war to drag on for years.

The president’s statements came after the leaders met for talks following what Trump called an “excellent” 2 1/2 hours of telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose invasion of Ukraine sparked the war nearly four years ago.

Trump said he believed Putin still wanted peace, even as Russia launched a new round of attacks on Ukraine while Zelensky flew to the United States for the latest round of negotiations.

“Russia wants to see Ukraine succeed,” Trump said at a late afternoon news conference as he stood alongside Zelensky after their meeting. He repeatedly praised his counterpart as “courageous”.

Both Trump and Zelensky acknowledged that thorny questions remain, including whether Russia can retain the Ukrainian territory it controls, as well as security guarantees for Ukraine to ensure it is not invaded again in the future. After their discussion, they convened a large group of European leaders, including Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and the leaders of Finland, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland.

Zelensky said Trump had agreed to host European leaders again, possibly at the White House, sometime in January. Trump said the meeting could take place in Washington or “somewhere.”

Zelensky thanked Trump for his work. “Ukraine is ready for peace,” he said.

Trump and Putin will talk again

Trump said he would follow the meeting with another call to Putin. Earlier on Sunday, Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuriy Ushakov, said the Trump-Putin call was initiated by the American side and was “friendly, benevolent and pragmatic.” Ushakov said Trump and Putin agreed to speak again “quickly” after Trump’s meeting with Zelensky.

But Ushakov added that a “bold and responsible political decision is needed by kyiv” on the bitterly contested Donbass region in eastern Ukraine and other disputed issues for there to be a “complete cessation” of hostilities.

Both leaders identified the choice of the future of the Donbas region as a major sticking point.

Trump said the sides were moving closer to a deal. “It’s a very difficult issue but one that I think will be resolved,” he said.

Zelensky said: “Our attitude is very clear. That is why President Trump said that this is a very difficult issue and, of course, we have different positions on this with Russia.”

However, Trump said he still believed Putin was “very serious” about ending the war, even as Russia continued to strike targets in Ukraine while Zelensky traveled to the United States. Trump said: “I think Ukraine has also launched some very powerful attacks. »

He raised the possibility that the negotiations could still fail.

“In a few weeks we’ll know one way or the other, I think,” Trump said. “We might have something where something you don’t think about is a big thing and breaks it. Look, this was a very difficult negotiation. Very detailed.”

The meeting between Trump and Zelensky underscored the apparent progress made by Trump’s top negotiators in recent weeks, as the sides exchanged draft peace plans to end the fighting. Zelenskyy told reporters Friday that the 20-point draft proposal discussed by negotiators was “about 90 percent ready” — echoing a figure and optimism expressed by U.S. officials when Trump’s chief negotiators met with Zelenskyy in Berlin this month.

During recent negotiations, the United States agreed to offer Ukraine certain security guarantees similar to those offered to other NATO members. The proposal comes as Zelensky says he is ready to abandon his country’s candidacy for the security alliance if Ukraine benefits from NATO-like protection, intended to protect it against future Russian attacks.

“Intensive” weeks to come

Zelensky also spoke on Christmas Day with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. The Ukrainian leader said they discussed “some substantive details” and warned that “there is still work to be done on sensitive issues” and that “the coming weeks could also be intense.”

The US president has worked to end the war in Ukraine for much of his first year in office, venting anger at both Zelensky and Putin while publicly acknowledging the difficulty of ending the conflict. Gone are the days when, as a candidate in 2024, he boasted of being able to resolve fights in a day. Indeed, on Sunday, Trump spoke several times about the complexity of the negotiations.

After welcoming Zelensky to the White House in October, Trump demanded that Russia and Ukraine stop fighting and “stop at the battle line,” implying that Moscow should be able to hold on to the territory it captured from Ukraine.

Zelensky said last week he would be ready to withdraw his troops from Ukraine’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Russia also withdrew and the area became a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.

Putin wants Russian achievements to be preserved, and more

Putin has publicly stated that he wants all areas of four key regions that have been captured by his forces, as well as the Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed in 2014, to be recognized as Russian territory. He also insisted that Ukraine withdraw from some areas of eastern Ukraine that Moscow’s forces have not captured. Kyiv has publicly rejected all these demands.

The Kremlin also wants Ukraine to abandon its NATO candidacy. He warned that he would not accept the deployment of troops from the military alliance and that he would consider them a “legitimate target”.

Putin also said Ukraine must limit the size of its army and grant official status to the Russian language, demands he made from the start of the conflict.

Ushakov told business daily Kommersant this month that Russian police and national guards would remain in parts of Donetsk – one of the two main regions, along with Luhansk, that make up the Donbass region – even if it became a demilitarized zone under a possible peace plan.

Ushakov warned that trying to reach a compromise could take a long time. He said U.S. proposals that took Russian demands into account had been “worsened” by changes proposed by Ukraine and its European allies.

Trump appeared somewhat receptive to Putin’s demands, saying the Russian president could be persuaded to end the war if kyiv agreed to cede Ukrainian lands in the Donbas region and if Western powers offered economic incentives to bring Russia back into the global economy.

Households have been urged to spend Boxing Day using leftovers from Christmas dinner, as figures suggest food waste will cost a family of four an average of £1,000 this year.

Households are expected to throw away around 85,000 tonnes of edible Christmas food this festive period alone, according to estimates from the Waste and Resources Action Program (Wrap) and the Office for National Statistics.

Some 16 million tonnes of CO2 are generated by UK households each year from wasted consumable food and drink, Wrap said.

A third of all the food we grow is wasted, and this is especially evident at Christmas

Throughout the year, almost 40% of food waste is due to it not being used on time – either because people think the product smells bad or looks bad, or because it is past its original date, according to a study carried out for the organization.

Every year, UK households throw away 480,000 tonnes of potatoes, or 41% of all potatoes purchased.

Wrap urged households to keep potatoes – and all other uncut fruit and vegetables, except onions, bananas and whole pineapples – in the fridge at 5C or below.

He also reminded consumers that food past its expiration date is safe to eat for days, months, or even years afterward, and that people should use their own judgment in deciding whether their food is edible.

However, “use by” labels refer to safety and foods should not be consumed after this date.

Catherine David, chief executive of Wrap, said: “A third of all the food we grow is wasted, and this is particularly visible at Christmas, a time when we want to have a feast, but at the same time household budgets are particularly strained.

“We can stretch our money further and protect our planet’s precious resources this Christmas by making sure we make the most of our leftovers and following Love Food Hate Waste’s simple tips and tricks to ensure we love our food, hate our waste and get as much food on people’s plates and bellies as possible.”

Circular Economy Minister Mary Creagh said: “More than half of food waste happens in our homes, so reheating extra roasts and making the traditional turkey curry can save money and reduce carbon emissions.

“With the Government’s £13.5 million in grants to food charities to redistribute 19,000 tonnes of surplus food from farms, small changes can help the Christmas food shop go further and end up in the freezer and not the food waste basket.”

The focus on food waste comes as appliance brands launch built-in AI tools to help consumers use the contents of their fridges and freezers.

Hisense’s ConnectLife app now includes Dish Designer, which uses AI to create personalized recipes from the contents of its fridges and freezers – a feature similar to Samsung’s Bespoke AI fridge-freezers which have touchscreens that generate recipes, largely by scanning what’s inside the fridge.

Hisense’s Dish Designer can customize recipes based on household dietary needs, and members can add products in the refrigerator and cupboards to an “inventory,” which is used to generate recipes.

Hisense said around 30,000 recipes have been generated in total across Europe since Dish Designer launched in May.

Of these, approximately 12,000 revenues were generated in the United Kingdom.

Leftover Wrap Recipes can be found online at 20 Tasty Recipes to Use Up Christmas Leftovers from Love Food Hate Waste.