ISLAMABAD: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will sit down Sunday with Donald Trump to seek the US president&rsquo;s stamp of approval for a new proposal to end the nearly four-year conflict with Russia. The 20-point plan, which emerged from weeks of intense US-Ukraine negotiations, lacks Moscow&#39;s approval, and the face-to-face in Florida comes in the wake of a massive Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv. The meeting, hosted by Trump at his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence, will be the pair&#39;s first in-person encounter since October, when the US president refused to grant Zelensky&#39;s request for long-range Tomahawk missiles. During a stopover in Canada on Saturday, Zelensky said he hoped the talks would be &quot;very constructive&quot; and said Russian leader Vladimir Putin had shown his hand with the latest assault on the Ukrainian capital. &quot;This attack is again, Russia&#39;s answer on our peace efforts. And this really showed that Putin doesn&#39;t want peace,&quot; he said. Europeans vow supportWhile in Canada, Zelensky held a conference call with European leaders who, according to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, pledged their full support for his peace efforts. Russia has accused Ukraine and its European backers of trying to &quot;torpedo&quot; a previous US-brokered plan to stop the fighting. EU chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa, who participated in the conference call, said the European Union&#39;s backing for Ukraine would never falter and vowed to maintain pressure on the Kremlin to come to terms. Trump has so far been non-committal on the new peace proposal. Zelensky &quot;doesn&#39;t have anything until I approve it,&quot; the president said in an interview with Politico on Friday. &quot;So we&#39;ll see what he&#39;s got.&quot; The talks will address a plan that would stop the war along its current front lines and could require Ukraine to pull back troops from the east, allowing the creation of demilitarized buffer zones. As such, it contains Kyiv&#39;s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions. But is does not envisage Ukraine withdrawing from the 20 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that it still controls -- Russia&#39;s main territorial demand. Trump has made ending the Ukraine and Gaza wars the centerpiece of his self-proclaimed second term as a &quot;president of peace.&quot; But the Ukraine war has, by his own admission, proved far harder than he expected, and the president has repeatedly voiced his frustration with both sides for failing to secure a truce. Security guaranteesIn Canada, Zelensky told reporters that security guarantees would be a key focus of the talks in Florida. &quot;Security guarantees must be simultaneous with the end of the war, because we must be confident that Russia will not start aggression again,&quot; he stressed. &quot;We need strong security guarantees. We will discuss this and we will discuss the terms.&quot; Ukraine insists it needs more European and US support in terms of funding and weaponry -- especially drones. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who met with Zelensky during his stopover on Saturday, announced CAN$2.5 billion (US$1.82 billion) in fresh economic assistance to help Ukraine rebuild once the war ends. The latest Russian attack, which saw 500 drones and 40 missiles pummel the Ukrainian capital and its infrastructure, knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of Kyiv region residents during freezing temperatures.

This files combination of pictures created on February 25, 2025 shows US President Donald Trump (L) on February 24, 2025, and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) on February 23, 2025.

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The meeting, hosted by Trump at his opulent Mar-a-Lago residence, will be the pair's first in-person encounter since October, when the US president refused to grant Zelensky's request for long-range Tomahawk missiles.

Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet

KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Ukraine needs European financial support to continue fighting Russian forces for another two or three years. Kyiv has been largely dependent on military and financial support from allies abroad to hold off Moscow&#39;s army, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. &quot;I emphasized this again to all European leaders. I told them that we are not going to fight for decades, but you must show that for some time you will be able to provide stable financial support to Ukraine,&quot; Zelensky said in comments released Tuesday. Russia&rsquo;s frozen assets&nbsp;&quot;And that is why they have this program in mind &ndash;- 2-3 years,&quot; Zelensky said, referring to Brussels&#39; plans to tap Russia&#39;s frozen assets to help Kyiv. EU leaders last week tasked the European Commission to move ahead with options for funding Ukraine for two more years, leaving the door open for a mammoth loan using tens of billions of euros in Russian state assets that the bloc has frozen. &quot;If the war ends in a month, we will spend this money on recovery. If it does not end in a month, but after some time, then we will spend it on weapons. We simply have no other choice,&quot; Zelensky added. &lsquo;Strong moves&rsquo;&nbsp;The Ukrainian leader also urged US President Donald Trump to pressure Chinese leader Xi Jinping to cut his support for Russia when the two leaders meet later this week. &quot;I think this may be one of (Trump&#39;s) strong moves, especially if, following this decisive sanctions step, China is ready to reduce imports&quot; from Russia, Zelensky told journalists, including AFP, at a briefing released Tuesday. Trump hit two major Russian oil companies with sanctions last week and has been urging buyers of Moscow&#39;s vital energy exports -- specifically China and India -- to cut their purchases that Washington and Kyiv say fund Russia&#39;s invasion. As the war drags through its fourth year, Russia is pushing forward across the front line, at significant cost. &lsquo;Main target&rsquo;Zelensky conceded that Russian forces have gained a foothold in the eastern Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk, an important former rail hub that Moscow has been trying to capture for over a year. &quot;Around 200 Russians are located there in various places -- we see this from drones. Pokrovsk is currently the main target for the Russians,&quot; Zelensky said.

Kyiv has been largely dependent on military and financial support from allies abroad to hold off Moscow's army, which launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

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Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet

Zelensky says needs European support for 2-3 more years of fighting

Zelensky looks to close out Ukraine peace deal at Trump meet