Ukraine's Zelensky says to meet Trump in “near future”

• President Zelensky announced an upcoming high-level meeting with Donald Trump, expressing optimism that major progress on the 20-point peace plan could be achieved before the New Year.
• The proposed plan allows Ukraine to maintain its NATO ambitions while potentially establishing demilitarized zones in Donetsk, though the Kremlin has yet to signal any shift from its hardline demands for a total Ukrainian withdrawal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that he would soon meet US leader Donald Trump, as part of efforts to end the war with Russia.

"We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level –- with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year," Zelensky said on social media.

The comments came after the latest round of negotiations between US and Ukrainian teams produced a 20-point plan to end the war, which has been sent to Moscow for feedback.

The latest plan would freeze the frontline and remove a requirement for Kyiv to legally renounce its bid to join NATO, Zelensky said in a briefing Wednesday.

But the Ukrainian leader also indicated the plan opened the way to eventually pulling his troops back in the eastern Donetsk region and establishing a demilitarised zone -- positions Kyiv has previously been reluctant to accept.

The Kremlin said Friday that foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov had held a telephone call with unnamed US officials to discuss the negotiations. It did not elaborate and has not indicated its position on the latest plan, revealed by Zelensky earlier this week.

Moscow has up to now shown little inclination that it would abandon its hardline territorial demands that Ukraine fully withdraw from the eastern Donbas and relinquish its NATO ambitions, as well as a ban on Western countries deploying peacekeeping troops to the country.