Tipsheet

Here's What Happened at Trump's Russia-Ukraine Peace Deal Presser

Joseph Chalfant
Joseph Chalfant  |  December 28, 2025 8:00 PM

President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a joint press conference at Mar-a-Lago today following their meeting over a proposed peace deal.

Both men signaled that an agreement to end the war in Ukraine was nearing finalization, but did not announce specifics.

“Our meeting was excellent,” Trump said. “We covered, somebody would say 95 percent…I don’t know what percent, but we have made a lot of progress on ending that war, which is really…certainly the most deadly war since World War Two.”

“We discussed a lot of points,” Trump said. “I do think that we’re getting a lot closer. Maybe very close.”

Trump then thanked his son-in-law Jared Kushner, a key figure in the Abraham Accords, U.S. diplomat Steve Witkoff, Sec. Marco Rubio, and Sec. Pete Hegseth for their "unbelievable job” in the negotiations. Zelensky echoed this sentiment.

“I would like to thank President Trump for a great meeting,” Zelensky said. "We had really great discussions on all the topics. We appreciate the progress that was made by American and Ukrainian teams in these recent weeks."

While exact details are unknown, Zelensky revealed that the peace framework includes a 20-point peace plan, U.S.-Ukraine security guarantees, further U.S.-Europe-Ukraine security guarantees, a prosperity plan, and the timeline for each of the items.

Zelensky then announced that U.S. and Ukrainian diplomats will be gathering “in the coming weeks” to finalize the deal.

“Ukraine is ready for peace,” Zelensky’s statement ended.

Trump indicated that all parties involved are motivated towards finding a path to end the conflict.

“Russian wants [the war] ended, everybody wants it ended, and we want it ended because I don’t want to see so many people dying,” Trump said. ”We’re losing massive numbers of people, the biggest by far since World War Two.”

Trump also stated that there were very few issues holding the finalized peace plan from coming together.

“We could be very close,” Trump said. “There are one or two very thorny issues, very tough issues, but I think that we’re doing very well. We’ve made a lot of progress today, but we’ve really made it over the last month. This is not a one day process.”

Trump revealed that territory disputes were the primary cause for the delay in a completed peace deal.

“Some of that land has been taken, and some of that land is maybe up for grabs, but it may be taken over…number of months,” Trump said. “You’re better off making a deal now.”

President Trump also left the door open on a potential visit to Ukraine if it could bring the war to a close.

“[I] don’t anticipate it,” Trump said. “[I] would like to get the deal done and not necessarily have to go. I’ve offered to speak to [Ukraine’s] parliament if that would help. If it would help save 25,000 lives a month, or whatever it may be, I would certainly be willing to do that.”

Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for over two hours before the meeting with Zelensky.

“We’ve done very well,” Trump said. “We’ve had discussions on just about every subject, and that includes with President Putin.” 

Trump and Zelensky jointly held a one-hour-long conversation with a slew of European leaders to discuss the details of the plan further. Some European leaders praised the progress towards peace.

Negotiations for the peace deal are expected to continue in January.