Zelenskyy says meeting with Trump might happen 'in the near future'

A meeting with US President Donald Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday, the next step in ongoing talks to end Russia's nearly four-year war inUkraine.

“We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added. "Glory to Ukraine."

Zelenskyy's announcement came after he said Thursday he had a “good conversation” with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Washington has engaged in an extensive diplomatic push to end the all-out war, but its efforts have run into sharply diverging demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Zelenskyy said Tuesday Ukraine would consider withdrawing troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a peace plan, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.

Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any withdrawal from the land it has occupied.

In fact, Moscow has insisted that Kyiv relinquish the territory it holds in eastern Donbas, which encompasses Donetsk and Luhansk — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected.

The issue of managing the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, seized by Russian troops, remains unresolved, as well as the Kremlin's demand for Ukraine not to join NATO.

Moscow was expected to reply to the latest 20-point plan on Wednesday. However, it is yet to do so or comment on its contents, with presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov only saying the Kremlin was "forming its position".

On the ground, Russian drone attacks on the city of Mykolaiv and its suburbs overnight into Friday left part of the city without power.

Meanwhile, Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.

Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces hit the Novoshakhtinsk refinery in Russia’s Rostov region. “Multiple explosions were recorded. The target was hit,” it wrote on Telegram.

Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes on Russian refineries aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its full-scale invasion.

Continuing its strategy from previous winter periods, Russia wants to cripple the Ukrainian power grid, seeking to deny civilians access to heat, light and running water in what Kyiv officials say is an attempt to weaponise winter.