PALM BEACH, Florida — The US security guarantees for Ukraine were "100% agreed", President Volodymyr Zelensky saidfollowing a high-stakes meeting with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Sunday.

The Ukrainian president hailed "great achievements" following a bilateral meeting with his US counterpart, who insisted that Russia's war against Ukraine must end soon.

Emerging after more than three hours of talks, neither man announced any major breakthrough in the grinding effort to end the conflict started by Russia in 2022. Both emphasized the process was complicated and would take more time. Trump, who spoke by phone earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin, still offered a relatively sympathetic view of Moscow’s positions.

Zelensky told reporters in Florida that US security guarantees for the country, a key point before a peace settlement can be finalized, have been "100% agreed" and an economic plan to revitalise the Ukrainian economy is "almost finalised".

"We have great achievements, the 20-point peace plan is 90% agreed and US-Ukraine security guarantees are 100% agreed," Zelenskyy told reporters. "US, Europe and Ukraine security guarantees are almost agreed. The military dimension is 100% agreed."

Yet unlike some previous meetings, Trump praised Zelensky and remained confident that peace was near.

“I do think we’re getting a lot closer, maybe very close,” the US president said.

Trump said the talks with Zelensky and the Ukrainian delegation will continue on Monday. While hailing a productive meeting, the US president acknowledged that the most sensitive issue — the possible partition of territories — remains unresolved.

“Some of that land is maybe up for grabs," Trump said. "They're going to have to iron that one out. But I think it's moving in the right direction.”

When asked specifically about the Donbas in Ukraine's east — the area consisting of Donetsk and Luhansk which Ukraine has opposed giving up as it would reward Russia, which has occupied parts of it — Trump conceded, "That's a very tough issue."

Trump said “we will see in a few weeks” if the peace plan works out.

Trump, after he shook Zelensky’s hand on the Mar-a-Lago steps, insisted he had no deadline in mind for ending the Ukraine war.

Yet he also seemed to suggest that now — with intensive talks underway led by his envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner — was the ripest to finally end the nearly four-year war.

“I think we’re in the very final stages of talking, and we’re going to see,” Trump said, adding, “It’ll either end or it’s going to go on for a long time, and millions of additional people are going to be killed.”

Trump has been frustrated with the pace of peace talks and alternates between blaming Zelensky and Putin for the inability to end the conflict. After declaring during the 2024 campaign he’d be able to resolve the war within a day of taking office, he now says it’s harder than he imagined — in part because he hasn’t been able to leverage a warm personal relationship with Putin.

Trump said Europe will be responsible for a significant share of Ukraine's future security architecture, but added that the US "will help" without providing further details.

Ukraine has repeatedly argued that US security guarantees must be part of the final deal.

The two presidents spoke by phone with European leaders for over an hour during their meeting on Sunday.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the meeting showed "good progress" and Europe will keep "working with Ukraine and our US partners to consolidate this progress," she added in a post on X after the call.

Von der Leyen stressed that "paramount to this effort is to have ironclad security guarantees from day one" to end a decade-long pattern of Russian aggression.

The leaders of Finland, France, Poland, the UK, Germany, Italy and Norway and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte joined the call on Sunday.

An hour before meeting Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago, Trump also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

After the call, Trump said that the Kremlin has not changed its stance, demanding complete control of Ukraine’s eastern regions, which it does not fully control militarily after almost four years of war, as well as Moscow’s opposition to a ceasefire.

“He (Putin) feels that they're fighting and to stop, if they have to start again, which is a possibility - he doesn't want to be in that position,” Trump said after the call.

Ukrainian authorities have said they are ready for a ceasefire as a sign of good faith.

Asked about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant (ZNPP), occupied by Russia since the early stages of Moscow’s full-scale invasion, Trump said Putin is "working with Ukraine on getting it open” on the basis that Putin "wants to see it open" too.

The ZNPP, which is the largest nuclear power plant in Europe, has been heavily militarised by Russian forces, prompting repeated concerns about the risks of an accident. — Agencies