Trump offered 15-year security guarantees but Donbas, Zaporizhzhia plant unresolved, Zelenskyy says

The path to peace in Ukraine was still tangled Monday by the "thorny issues" that President Donald Trump said remained despite the optimism of his summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy

The path to peace in Ukraine was still tangled Monday by the "thorny issues" that President Donald Trump said remained despite the optimism of his summit with Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Ukraine's leader offered more clarity about those unresolved questions following his trip to Florida, which ended with no breakthroughs but plenty of positivity from both sides. The Kremlin agreed with Trump’s assessment that talks to end its war were in the final stage even as it stuck to its hard-line territorial demands.

After nearly three hours behind closed doors at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, the leaders emerged to say they were “very close” to a deal, and “90%” of the way there. But it’s those remaining “one or two very thorny issues,” as Trump put it, that will decide whether an agreement can be found between Kyiv and Moscow.

Answering questions from reporters in a WhatsApp chat Monday, Zelenskyy outlined one key area where there does seem to have been progress.

The Ukrainian leader said Trump was now offering Kyiv legally binding security guarantees that would last for 15 years, though he had asked for them to remain in place for up to half a century.