KYIV, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday Kyiv was discussing with Washington a possible presence of U.S. troops in Ukraine as part of security guarantees, and also raised what he called a faked attack on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s residence. Zelenskiy told the media in a WhatsApp chat that Kyiv was committed to continuing talks on how to end the war triggered by Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion and he was ready to meet Putin in any format. Make sense of the latest ESG trends affecting companies and governments with the Reuters Sustainable Switch newsletter. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday he and Zelenskiy were “maybe very close” to an agreement to end the war although “thorny” territorial issues lingered. He was more cautious than Zelenskiy on security guarantees, but said they were 95% of the way to such an agreement and that he expected European countries to “take over a big part” of that effort with U.S. backing.
On Tuesday, Russia said its negotiating stance would toughen after it accused Kyiv of attacking one of Putin’s Russian presidential residences – an allegation that Kyiv said was baseless and intended to scuttle arduous peace talks.
ZELENSKIY KEEN ON US TROOPS IN UKRAINE
Zelenskiy said in his WhatsApp chat that a U.S. troop presence in Ukraine would be a major security boost for Kyiv.
“Of course, we are discussing this with President Trump and with representatives of the (Western) coalition (supporting Kyiv). We want this. We would like this. This would be a strong position of the security guarantees,” he said.
The White House had no comment on the issue of dispatching U.S. troops to Ukraine under any peace settlement with Russia. Zelenskiy said he was willing to meet Putin despite the deep lack of mutual trust he underlined on Monday. “I told President Trump, European leaders I am ready for any format of meeting with Putin. I am not afraid of any format … The main thing is for Russians not to be afraid.” Russia said on Monday Kyiv had targeted a presidential residence in the Novgorod region with 91 long-range attack drones, all of which it said it had intercepted. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described the alleged attack as “state terrorism” and said Moscow had already identified targets for retaliatory strikes in Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy listens to U.S. President Donald Trump, after Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed willingness to help Ukraine “succeed”, during a press conference at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., December 28, 2025. “Ukraine and its partners are committed to a path of peace, while Russia has chosen to continue and intensify its war against Ukraine. This is in itself an act of defiance against President Trump’s peace agenda,” the source said. Amid the intensifying peace diplomacy, Russia launched more waves of drones against port infrastructure and civilian ships in Ukraine’s Odesa region on Tuesday, Ukrainian navy and government officials said. Odesa and the wider region nearby are home to the Black Sea ports that are crucial for Ukraine’s foreign trade and the survival of its wartime economy. In the past several months, maritime warfare between Ukraine and Russia has intensified. Both sides have attacked naval and commercial assets in the Black Sea and beyond. Ukraine is increasingly using its sea drones for attacks on ships connected to Russia’s sanctions-busting shadow fleet.