Trump and Zelensky to meet Sunday, try to close out peace plan

What they're saying: Zelensky confirmed he would meet Trump on Sunday. He said Trump's plan was "90%" agreed but he could not say whether they would sign any agreements.

• "We are not losing a single day. 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 wrote on X earlier on Friday after receiving a briefing from his top negotiator, Rustem Umerov.
• The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

State of play: The planned presidential meeting follows a weekend of talks in Florida between Trump advisers Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner and the top negotiators from both Russia and Ukraine — the latest in a long series of meetings over the last two months.

• A senior U.S. official described the talks with both Umerov and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev as "positive and constructive."
• "We've gone as far as possible with the Russians and the Ukrainians. We've made more progress in the last two weeks than the last year. We want to push the ball into the goal. We're heading in the right direction," the U.S. official said.

Behind the scenes: The discussions continued over Christmas. Zelensky spoke on Thursday with Witkoff and Kushner.

• "We are truly working 24/7 to bring closer the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable. I hope that today's Christmas understandings and the ideas we discussed will prove useful," Zelensky said after the call.
• Later on Thursday, Witkoff and Kushner had additional discussions with the Ukrainian negotiators and with Russian officials.
• The Kremlin said Friday that Yuri Ushakov, President Vladimir Putin's top foreign policy aide, had spoken with U.S. counterparts.

Breaking it down: Most elements of the deal have been agreed between the U.S. and Ukraine, officials from both countries say, including the security guarantees Kyiv would receive from the U.S. and Europe.

• The senior U.S. official confirmed the U.S. was prepared to send the security guarantee, with text based on NATO's Article 5, to the Senate for ratification.

• "The U.S. and Europe will provide Ukraine with security guarantees. If Russia invades Ukraine there will be a military response and sanctions will be reinstated," Zelensky said in a briefing with reporters earlier this week.
• Zelensky has said the sides are still negotiating over who will manage Europe's largest nuclear power plant, in Zaporizhzhia.

Friction point: The main sticking point is Russia's demand that it control the entirety of the Donbas region under any deal.

• The U.S. has proposed that the areas from which Ukraine's troops would be asked to withdraw become a demilitarized "free economic zone."
• Zelensky has insisted on a like-for-like pullback of Russia's forces from the current line of control, and has stressed that territorial concessions would have to be approved in a referendum.

What to watch: The U.S. side approves of the idea of Ukraine holding a ceasefire on the deal, but the logistics will be complicated.

• According to the senior U.S. official, the Russians — who have previously opposed a ceasefire until a deal is final — have agreed that a ceasefire would be needed to hold such a referendum.
• But while Ukraine wants a 60-day truce, the Russians may demand something shorter, the official said.