Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky said progress had been made to end the Ukraine war during Florida talks but the US leader added one or two very thorny issues remained.
While both the US and Ukrainian presidents described the talks as great, Trump reiterated that a key sticking point was the question of territory. Russia has demanded that Ukraine hand over more land.
Addressing reporters at Mar-a-Lago, Zelensky said they had come to an agreement on 90% of a 20-point peace plan, while Trump said a security guarantee for Ukraine was close to 95% done.
Zelensky later said US and Ukrainian teams would meet next week for further talks on issues aimed at ending Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
We had a substantive conversation on all issues and highly value the progress that the Ukrainian and American teams have made over the past weeks, Zelensky said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and Moscow currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory.
A proposal to turn the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, which Russia largely controls, into a demilitarised zone remains unresolved, Trump said.
Some of that land has been taken, he told reporters after the meeting. Some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over the next period of a number of months.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The regions are collectively known as Donbas.
While the US president is keen to add the Ukraine-Russia war to the list of conflicts he claims to have resolved, he cautioned that stalled talks could mean the war continues.
