Von der Leyen on call with Zelenskyy, Trump and European leaders: "Good progress"

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said "good progress" has been made following a call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump.

Source: von der Leyen on X (Twitter)

Quote: "We had a good, one-hour-long call with President Trump, President Zelenskyy and several European leaders to discuss their meeting today on peace negotiations.

There was good progress, which we welcomed."

Details: Von der Leyen added that "Europe is ready to keep working with Ukraine and our US partners to consolidate this progress".

Quote: "Paramount to this effort is to have ironclad security guarantees from day one."

Background:

• On 23 December, Zelenskyy told journalists that Ukraine would submit a 20-point peace agreement either for ratification by parliament or to a nationwide referendum and may also decide to hold elections in the country at the same time as the referendum. He believes that holding a referendum would require at least 60 days and a full ceasefire for that period.
• On 28 December, Zelenskyy and Trump met in Florida. Afterwards, the two presidents held a video conference with European leaders.
• Trump said on Sunday that he had a "good and very productive" conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin ahead of his meeting with Zelenskyy.
• Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov claimed that during this conversation, Putin and Trump had agreed that a temporary ceasefire "under the pretext of a referendum" would only drag out the conflict.
• Trump said that Putin had not agreed to a ceasefire during a possible referendum in Ukraine on the proposed "peace plan".

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