Trump: Ukraine Deal Has Been 'Fine-Tuned'

President Trump announced Tuesday that his administration has made significant progress toward a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, with only "a few remaining points of disagreement" to be resolved. Trump said he has dispatched special envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, while Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will meet separately with Ukrainian officials, CNN reports. Trump indicated he may meet with both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, but only when a deal is nearly finalized.

• "I will be briefed on all progress made, along with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles," Trump said in a Truth Social post. "I look forward to hopefully meeting with President Zelenskyy and President Putin soon, but ONLY when the deal to end this War is FINAL or, in its final stages."

Trump highlighted the progress on a US-drafted 28-point peace plan, which he said has been "fine-tuned, with additional input from both sides." "I think we're getting very close to a deal. We'll find out," Trump said during the White House turkey pardon on Tuesday, per the AP. "I thought that would have been an easier one, but I think we're making progress," he said. One key sticking point appears to be Ukraine's potential NATO membership, a demand the initial proposal asked Ukraine to abandon.

Former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told CNN that Ukraine may need to signal it won't seek NATO membership for now but warned that peace should not come "through surrender." He said Ukraine will join the European Union instead, "which probably makes more sense at this point." Ukrainian officials have called the NATO demand unacceptable, though Panetta believes a workable compromise is possible.

• Zelensky, for his part, said his country's negotiating team is making progress but that Russia's war against Ukraine continues. "Every day, Russia kills our people on the front lines and attacks our cities and energy infrastructure," he said in a post on X after at least seven people were killed in strikes on Kyiv.
• European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and French President Emmanuel Macron echoed concerns about Russia's intentions, with Macron accusing Moscow of "pretending it wanted peace" while continuing attacks.
• Russia, meanwhile, signaled that it might resist changes to the plan, with foreign minister Sergey Lavrov saying it would be a "fundamentally different situation" if the changes "erased" the agreements made during Trump's summit with Putin in Alaska, New York Times reports.