Volodymyr Zelensky declares Ukraine ready for peace deal referendum ahead of Donald Trump meeting

"I think we are ready with these documents," President Zelenksy explained, referring to the modified US-brokered peace deal.

He expressed there were still "technical things" to iron out, but appeared to open the door to territorial concessions to Russia.

President Zelensky revealed that if the plan called for "a very difficult" decision on handing over land to Russia, then a national referendum would be sought.

Comparing the process to Brexit, he said the entire 20-point plan would be put to the Ukrainian people for their approval.

However, the complications of such a venture in the war-torn country would require at least a two-month-long ceasefire as a "minimum", per Axios.

Mr Zelensky announced he would fly to the US for high-level talks with President Trump on X, stating: "We are not losing a single day.

"We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level with President Trump in the near future."

“A lot can be decided before the New Year," he promised.

The forthcoming discussions will centre on a 20-point peace framework, with several contentious issues remaining unresolved.

Negotiations have reached a deadlock regarding the future control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant once hostilities conclude.

Another key sticking point has been how Ukrainian territory broadly would ultimately be apportioned, with Russian forces occupying much of the Donbas, consisting of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions in the nation’s east. Moscow also maintains control over the southern regions of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, which face onto the Black Sea and Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014.

Earlier this week, the Ukrainian leader presented a revised version of the peace proposal, which represented a softening of Kyiv's previous firm positions on territorial matters.

While the updated plan proves more advantageous to Ukraine than an earlier 28-point draft authored by Steve Witkoff, the American special envoy, and Kirill Dmitriev, who leads Russia's negotiating team, it still requires substantial compromises from Kyiv.

Mr Zelensky indicated this week that Washington had proposed dividing ownership of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility three ways.

Meanwhile, Moscow confirmed it had received the revised proposals, which were brought back from the United States by Mr Dmitriev earlier this week.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "We are examining this material and, depending on the decisions made by the head of state, we will continue our communication with the Americans."

However, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to express scepticism about the framework during a private gathering with senior business figures on Thursday.

The Russian dictator reasserted his claim to the entire Donbas region, while signalling openness to exchanging certain territories currently under Russian control, according to the paper's Kremlin correspondent Andrei Kolesnikov.

Mr Kolesnikov said President Putin has communicated: "In other words, 'Donbas is ours'."

President Putin is understood to have indicated that Russia continues to discuss the joint management of the Zaporizhzhia facility with Washington, pointedly excluding Kyiv from such arrangements.

The Russian leader was said to have told attendees that the Americans had shown interest in utilising electricity from the Zaporizhzhia plant to power cryptocurrency mining operations.

Mr Kolesnikov said: "He also said that the Americans had stepped back from some of their own proposals as a result of talks with the Europeans. And that this was a weakness."

Moscow is expected to push for additional modifications to the plan, including tighter constraints on Ukraine's armed forces and assurances preventing Nato's further eastward expansion.

Russia is also reportedly seeking clarification on potential sanctions relief and the future of hundreds of billions of euros in frozen Russian state assets held in Western nations.

The talks come as Ukrainian and Russian forces remain locked in a stalemate conflict.

Over Christmas, Ukraine launched British Storm Shadow missiles to hit several Russian oil and gas facilities, according to its military and security officials.

Ukraine has previously used the British-manufactured weapons to strike Russian industrial targets that it says are integral to Moscow's war machine.