WASHINGTON – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking up to 50 years of U.S. security guarantees as part of a potential peace settlement with Russia proposed by the Trump administration.
Zelensky told reporters a day after meeting President Donald Trump in Florida that the United States offered 15 years of security guarantees, but said he told Trump the war had been going on for nearly 15 years and asked the administration to consider a longer commitment.
“I told him that we really want to think about the possibility in 30, 40, 50 years, and then it will be a historic decision by President Trump. The president said he would think about it,” Zelensky said, according to Al Jazeera.
Zelensky’s remarks came after he presented his version of the plan to Trump and senior U.S. officials on Dec. 28 at the president’s private resort in Palm Beach. The leaders later said they had made substantial progress on a security framework but had yet to agree on the fate of Ukraine’s eastern Donbass region, where Russia occupies most but not all of the territory.
Russia is urging Kiev to withdraw from parts of the region still under Ukrainian control and to recognize the territory in any peace deal. Ukraine has expressed its willingness to turn the disputed land into a demilitarized economic zone.
The question of who will run the Zaporizhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, also remains unresolved. Russia currently controls the power plant, which provided more than 20% of Ukraine’s energy before the war began.
A firefighter walks at the scene where a Russian drone hit a residential building during the night of Russian drone and missile attacks during the Russian attack on Ukraine on December 27, 2025 in Kiev, Ukraine.
Russia annexed the Ukrainian territory of Crimea more than a decade ago in 2014 and launched a full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, seizing nuclear power plants and much of eastern Ukraine.
Trump urged Zelensky to reach a deal to end the fighting quickly, although he said before the meeting that there was no firm timetable.
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky hold a news conference after a luncheon at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club on December 28, 2025 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump said at a press conference with Zelensky after the talks that “troublesome issues” remained and it was “possible” that the conflict would not abate. The leaders held an hour-long phone call with several major European heads of government following private discussions, with another round of face-to-face talks likely to take place in January.
Trump said he spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for more than two hours earlier in the day and may speak to the leader again soon. He said he was on the side of “peace” and refused to criticize Putin’s bombing of Ukraine with missiles and drones ahead of a summit with Zelensky.
The Kremlin said on December 29 that it was brewing another call and once again pushing for Kyiv to withdraw its troops from Donbass.
This article originally appeared in USA TODAY: Zelensky says U.S. provided security guarantees to Ukraine after Trump speech
