On December 28 local time, after the meeting at the Mar-a-Lago estate, Trump urged Zelenskyy:

"You'd better reach a deal now," otherwise Ukraine will lose more territory. Trump said that the most difficult issue currently is the territorial issue. He said, "Some land (territory) has been occupied, some land may be under dispute, but it may be occupied in the coming months. You'd better reach a deal now, they are fighting very hard and continue to fight very hard, causing great losses. But Russia wants to see the conflict end, and Ukraine also wants to see it end. I think it's time to end it."

The territorial issue is the key obstacle, the most difficult and challenging part of the current negotiations, with no signs of flexibility or concessions so far.

Ukraine: Zelenskyy emphasized that the territorial issue "must be decided by the Ukrainian people," and reiterated that Ukraine's laws and the territories currently under its control must be respected.

United States/Russia: On the same day of the meeting, Russian President's assistant Ushakov revealed that Russia and the United States have agreed to establish two working groups (security and economic). The Russian side believes that in order to completely end the conflict, Ukraine needs to make a political decision regarding the arrangement in the Donbas region.

Trump played a key role in the negotiations:

Before the meeting (December 26), Trump told the media, "Zelenskyy has nothing without my approval," positioning himself as the "final arbiter" of the peace agreement.

In summary, this meeting showed significant progress on the technical and procedural issues of the peace agreement between the US and Ukraine, but there remains a huge gap between Ukraine and Russia (and the US behind it) on the most core issue of territorial sovereignty.

The current situation is that a peace framework including Western security guarantees is approaching completion, but its premise may be Ukraine's difficult choice on the territorial issue. The negotiations have entered the "final stage," but as Trump said, "it's not a process that can be completed in a day." The current situation is that without Ukraine making compromises on the territorial issue, peace will be decided by war, which foreshadows Ukraine losing more.

Original: toutiao.com/article/1852830057487436/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author himself.