US President Donald Trump said that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries’ leaders.

Trump, who had promised a peace deal on day one of his nearly year-old presidency, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people since February 2022.

In a pre-New Year’s diplomatic sprint, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Florida, where the two met with top aides over lunch, a day after Russia unleashed major new attacks on residential areas of the capital Kyiv.

Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke shortly beforehand by telephone with the US leader, who immediately insisted that Moscow was “serious” about peace despite the assault.

“I really believe we’re, Mr President, probably closer than — far closer than — ever before with both parties,” Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“Everybody wants it ended,” Trump said.

After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by telephone with key European leaders, who have been particularly alarmed about any decisions that would embolden Russia.

Zelensky said that he and European leaders could return jointly for talks with Trump in Washington in January.

The Ukrainian president stayed studiously polite throughout his visit, mindful of his disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated him for not being sufficiently grateful.

Territory impasse

Trump, for all his stated optimism, gave few details on the progress he cited, instead digressing into familiar grievances about his predecessor Joe Biden, who committed billions of dollars for Ukraine’s defense, and speaking of his own friendly rapport with Putin.

Trump acknowledged continued disagreement between Kyiv and Moscow on territory. The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarized area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.

“It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved,” Trump said.

Trump offered to address the Ukrainian parliament to promote the plan — an idea, however unlikely, that Zelensky was quick to welcome.

Zelensky has voiced an openness to the revised US plan, marking Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, although Ukrainians voters would need to approve it in a referendum.

By contrast, Russia has shown no signs of compromise, as it sees hope in the grinding gains it has made over four years against tough Ukrainian defenses.

The Kremlin in its readout of talks between Putin and Trump called on Kyiv to make a “brave decision” and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas, casting European leaders as the impediment to peace.

“Russia and the United States share the same position which is that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire (…) would only prolong the conflict and lead to a resumption of hostilities,” the Kremlin’s diplomatic advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters.

’90 percent’ agreed by Ukraine

Trump’s advisors have previously floated the idea of offering NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance’s members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.

Zelensky said that the peace framework laid out by Trump was “90 percent agreed” and that “US-Ukraine security guarantees: 100 percent agreed.”

Zelensky said the two sides were still finalizing a “prosperity plan” for Ukraine as well as the sequencing of the various actions.

Russia had adamantly rejected any entrance of the former Soviet republic into NATO.

In its latest assault with drones and missiles, Russia knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents during freezing temperatures.

“If the authorities in Kyiv don’t want to settle this business peacefully, we’ll resolve all the problems before us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday.

• NCP chief says final list of candidates to be announced on Monday.
• Tasnim Jara, several other leaders quit NCP in protest.
• Critics of NCP’s move say it undermined party’s founding ideals.
  

DHAKA: The student-led Bangladeshi party born out of the protest movement that toppled Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has forged an electoral alliance with Jamaat-e-Islami ahead of February’s parliamentary election, stirring internal rifts.

Since last year’s uprising, the National Citizen Party (NCP) has cast itself as a centrist, reformist alternative to nepotism and two-party dominance, but as the election nears, it is struggling to turn street power into voter support.

NCP chief Nahid Islam said on Sunday the party had decided to enter into the alliance for greater unity, adding that the final list of candidates would be announced on Monday. Other NCP figures have described the alliance as a pragmatic step in a fragmented political landscape.

But the decision to join forces with JI has already prompted internal ructions.

Tasnim Jara, a doctor who left a career in Britain to join the NCP, becoming a leader in the party, resigned on Saturday and said she would contest the election as an independent candidate. Several other members have also quit.

BNP regains momentum 

Critics of the NCP’s move said it undermined the party’s founding ideals.

“The moral support I had for the NCP will no longer exist due to this ideological mismatch,” said one university student, asking not to be named.

The partnership comes amid broader political realignments, with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) — aligned with ailing former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia and effectively led by her son, acting chair Tarique Rahman — regaining momentum following Rahman’s return after nearly 17 years in exile.

The February 12 election will be held under an interim administration headed by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who took charge after Hasina’s ouster and is seen as crucial to restoring political stability after nearly two years of turmoil.

A row over the disappearance of a famous river surfing wave in Munich escalated on Sunday as authorities removed a beam inserted over Christmas to recreate the attraction.

The Eisbach wave on a side branch of the Isar River had been a landmark in the Bavarian city since the 1980s but it vanished in October after annual cleanup work along the riverbed.

Activists had placed a beam in the water early on December 25 to partially recreate the wave, according to German media reports, and hung a banner above the water that read “Merry Christmas”.

But a spokesman for the Munich fire service told AFP the “installation was removed” on Sunday at the request of city authorities.

Activists have made several attempts to reinstate the wave in the city’s Englischer Garten park since October — only to see them reversed.

The local surfers’ association IGSM on Thursday posted a statement on its website saying it had abandoned its campaign to save the wave, accusing city authorities of dragging their feet.

The Eisbach wave was considered the largest and most consistent river wave in the heart of a major city and had become a tourist attraction in Bavaria’s state capital.

Franz Fasel, head of the IGSM, told AFP in July that 3,000 to 5,000 local surfers were using it.

Access to the wave was cut off for several months earlier this year after the death of a 33-year-old Munich woman who became trapped under the surface while surfing at night.