Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to meet President Trump "as soon as possible" — possibly over Thanksgiving — to finalize a joint U.S.-Ukrainian agreement on the terms for ending the war, Zelensky's chief of staff Andriy Yermak told Axios.
Why it matters: U.S. and Ukrainian officials have agreed in principle on most aspects of the plan, which has been modified heavily from the initial 28-point U.S. proposal. But Zelensky wants to negotiate on the matter of territorial concessions with Trump himself, Yermak said.
- A U.S. official confirmed there were discussions with the Ukrainians about a meeting this week or next, but said no date had been set.
- Trump will leave Washington for Thanksgiving on Tuesday evening and plans to stay at Mar-a-Lago through Sunday. Yermak said it could be symbolically significant to hold the meeting around the holiday.
What he's saying: "I hope the visit of President Zelensky will take place as soon as possible, because ... it will be help President Trump to continue his historical mission to end this war," Yermak told Axios in an interview over Zoom Tuesday morning.
- "Because [Trump] can say: 'Look, this is confirmed and agreed, our position with the Ukrainians. We support it, and we continue now to speak with the Russians.'"
Friction point: Yermak said the primary gap to be bridged by the presidents was over territory.
- The 28-point plan promised Russia additional territory beyond what it currently controls, provoking strong backlash from Ukraine and some of its backers.
- The U.S. argument was that the current trajectory of the war suggests it was only a matter of time before Ukraine loses the territory anyway.
- Other than the specific matters — particularly territory — that Zelensky wants to discuss with Trump, Yermak said the current draft correspondents to Ukraine's interests and respects its red lines.
Zoom in: One key issue adapted into the new draft is the security guarantees the U.S. and its European allies would provide Ukraine.
- "I think it now looks very solid," Yermak said of the text on security guarantees. "I think it's a historical decision of President Trump and the United States to issue these strong security guarantees, which Ukraine never had before."
- Yermak said the security guarantees would be "legally binding," and that there had been "positive reaction" from the U.S. side to the idea of enshrining them in a formal treaty.
- Axios reported that the previous draft called on the U.S. and NATO to treat a sustained Russian attack on Ukraine as an attack on the entire "transatlantic community."
The original U.S. plan called for Ukraine to rule out NATO membership and the presence of NATO troops on its soil in exchange for a security guarantee.
- Yermak said Ukraine wouldn't revoke its constitutional commitment to move toward NATO in the future, but said "we are living in reality now. We not in NATO."
Between the lines: The level of optimism projected by both the U.S. and Ukraine is staggering considering that just a few days ago, Trump was publicly pressing Zelensky to sign a deal the Ukrainian president said would cost Ukraine its dignity.
- Yermak said the 28-point plan had been "unacceptable," but that it was already water under the bridge.
- The current draft now has 19 points, with issues not directly related to peace in Ukraine removed and several other points amended to be more acceptable for Kyiv.
- "My proposal is to forget about the 28 points," Yermak said, with a rare smile. "Life changes so quickly that now I think it's in the past. This is great, that our partners support us and listen us and are working to make a plan which will be acceptable for Ukraine."
Yermak praised his U.S. interlocutors, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll, and envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner.
- He joked that he'd only met Driscoll last week, but now felt after days of meeting that he had known him for years.
The other side: Russian Foreign Secretary Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that while Moscow had "welcomed" the initial U.S. plan, "the situation will be fundamentally different" if the new version strays from understandings reached between Trump and President Vladimir Putin.
Split screen: Yermak has been at the center of the storm as a major corruption scandal has hit the Zelensky administration.
- Members of the opposition are demanding Yermak's resignation, though he has not been named in the accusations. A U.S. official told Axios last week that the scandal could weaken Ukraine's negotiating position with Russia.
- Yermak gave an impassioned defense of Zelensky's anti-corruption record and said it was important that these investigations continue but not "be politicized." He said his focus was on ending the war.
What to watch: Yermak said the deadly Russian attacks on Kyiv overnight were a sign that Russia was not planning to make peace.
- But he also argued that if the U.S. and Ukraine can finalize a joint position, and Trump can press Putin to negotiate on those terms, the end of the war could be near.
