A meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump will happen “in the near future,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday (December 26, 2025), signalling progress in talks to end the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine.

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

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” he added.

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

Mr. Trump has unleashed an extensive diplomatic push to end the war, but his efforts have run into sharply conflicting demands by Moscow and Kyiv.

Mr. Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland as part of a plan to end the war, if Moscow also pulls back and the area becomes a demilitarized zone monitored by international forces.

Though Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that there had been “slow but steady progress” in the peace talks, Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized.

In fact, Moscow has insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas — an ultimatum that Ukraine has rejected. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70% of Donetsk — the two areas that make up the Donbas.

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 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,” it wrote on Telegram.

Rostov regional Gov Yuri Slyusar said a firefighter was wounded when extinguishing the fire.

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. 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”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he would meet U.S. counterpart Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly next week as Russia intensified attacks across his country.

Russia carried out one of its largest aerial attacks overnight, firing 40 missiles and some 580 drones at Ukraine in a barrage that killed at least three people and wounded dozens, Mr. Zelenskyy said Saturday (September 20, 2025).

Mr. Zelenskyy said he would hold “a meeting with the President of the United States”, adding he would discuss security guarantees for Ukraine and sanctions on Russia during the talks with Mr. Trump.

Ukraine has insisted on Western-backed security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin has meanwhile warned that any Western troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable and legitimate targets.

A U.S.-led push for a quick end to the war has stalled, and Russia effectively ruled out a meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelenskyy — something that Kyiv says is the only way towards peace.

“We expect sanctions if there is no meeting between the leaders or, for example, no ceasefire,” Mr. Zelenskyy said in comments released by the Ukrainian presidency on Saturday (September 20, 2025).

“We are ready for a meeting with Putin. I have spoken about this. Both bilateral and trilateral. He is not ready,” Mr. Zelenskyy added.

In Russia’s latest aerial assault of Ukraine, “a missile with cluster munitions directly struck an apartment building” in the central city of Dnipro, Mr. Zelenskyy said earlier on social media.

He posted pictures of cars and a building on fire and rescuers carrying a person to safety amid rubble scattered nearby.

In the Dnipropetrovsk region, the strikes killed one person and wounded 26, with one man in a serious condition, Sergiy Lysak, the head of regional military administration, said.

‘Intense’ fighting

The strikes come a day after three Russian fighter jets violated the airspace of Estonia — a NATO member on the alliance’s eastern flank — an allegation Moscow denied.

But it triggered fears in the West of a dangerous new provocation from Moscow after Poland last week complained that around 20 Russian drones overflew its territory.

Mr. Zelenskyy repeated the call for “joint solutions” to shoot down drones over Ukraine “together with other countries”.

Russia, which has been chipping away at Ukrainian territory for months, announced on Saturday (September 20, 2025) its troops had captured the village of Berezove in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

In the northeastern Kharkiv region, “intense actions” were ongoing in the key area of Kupiansk, Mr. Zelenskyy said, referring to a rail hub Ukraine recaptured in its 2022 offensive.

Russian officials meanwhile said their forces had repelled “massive” Ukrainian attacks in the Volgograd and Rostov regions, while one person was wounded in the nearby region of Saratov.

The governor of Russia’s Samara region said “fuel and energy facilities” were targeted, without specifying the damage.

The Russian Defence Ministry said on Saturday (September 20, 2025) its air defence alert systems “intercepted and destroyed” 149 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 27 over the Saratov region and 15 over the Samara region.

Three rounds of direct peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have failed to yield anything more than large-scale prisoner exchanges.

Russia has maintained a series of hardline demands, including that Ukraine fully cedes the eastern Donbas region — parts of which it still controls.

Kyiv has rejected territorial concessions and wants European troops to be deployed to Ukraine as a peacekeeping force, something Moscow sees as unacceptable.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said all sides seek a rapid end to the war and called for lasting peace as he arrived in Washington on Sunday (August 17, 2025) night ahead of talks with the U.S. President.

“We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably,” Mr. Zelenskyy posted on social media. He will meet Donald Trump on Monday (August 18, 2025) alongside a cohort of European leaders.

He posted in his X account, “And peace must be lasting. Not like it was years ago, when Ukraine was forced to give up Crimea and part of our East—part of Donbas—and Putin simply used it as a springboard for a new attack. Or when Ukraine was given so called “security guarantees” in 1994, but they didn’t work.”

Mr. Zelenskyy added, “I am confident that we will defend Ukraine, effectively guarantee security, and that our people will always be grateful to President Trump, everyone in America, and every partner and ally for their support and invaluable assistance.”

U.S. President Donald Trump said late on Sunday (August 17, 2025) that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy could chose to end the war with Russia “almost immediately,” but retaking Russian-occupied Crimea or joining NATO are off the table.

“No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!” Mr. trump posted on his Truth Social platform, on the eve of a White House meeting with the Ukrainian President and European leaders.