Zelensky Flags Trump Meeting 'Before New Year' and Hopes for Peace Breakthrough

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky outlined Friday he will meet his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, “before the New Year” in the latest effort to negotiate an end to the Russian invasion. Win McNamee/Getty “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 said on social media. He said this came after Rustem Umerov, Ukraine’s lead negotiator in the peace talks, reported on his latest contacts with the U.S. side. “A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelensky further wrote. Trump has already indicated he believes talks are about to deliver an end to the bloody conflict. Ongoing negotiations between U.S. and Ukrainian teams have delivered a 20-point plan to end the conflict, which has been sent to Moscow for feedback. Zelensky told reporters he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end Russia’s war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized, free economic zone monitored by international forces, as Breitbart London reported . The proposal marks the clearest indication yet of the compromises the Ukrainian leader would be willing to make on the Donbas region, control of which is a major sticking point in peace negotiations. Meanwhile, the war goes on as Ukraine said it struck a major Russian oil refinery on Thursday using British-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,” he confirmed on Telegram. Follow Simon Kent on Twitter: Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com Follow @SunSimonKent or e-mail to: skent@breitbart.com

Preview: ~286 words