Photo: ALEX KENT
The US and Ukraine have agreed on the terms of a draft minerals deal central to Kyiv's push to win Washington's support as President Donald Trump seeks to rapidly end the war with Russia, two sources with knowledge of the matter said on Tuesday.
Trump told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to come to Washington on Friday to sign a "very big deal." This comes after the two leaders exchanged hostile words last week.
Trump also said some form of peacekeeping troops would be needed in Ukraine if an agreement to end the conflict was struck. Moscow, which launched an invasion of Ukraine three years ago, has refused to accept any deployment of NATO forces.
Trump's rush to impose an end to Russia's war in Ukraine and his lurch toward Moscow has stoked fears of far-reaching US concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin that could undermine security in Ukraine and Europe and alter the geopolitical landscape.
It was not immediately clear whether the agreement, which Trump has cast as a repayment for billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv, carries any concrete US security guarantees that Ukraine had sought or if Washington had committed to additional military assistance.
One of the sources familiar with the deal said future weapons shipments were still being discussed between Washington and Kyiv.
Trump last week falsely called Zelensky an unpopular "dictator" who needed to cut a quick peace deal or lose his country, while the Ukrainian leader said the US president was living in a "disinformation bubble".
Officials on both sides have agreed to the draft and advised it should be signed, the sources said.
The deal could open up Ukraine's vast mineral wealth to the US.
"What we're doing is now we're saying, look, we want to be secured," Trump said. "The American taxpayer now is going to get their money back, plus."
Zelensky refused to sign an earlier draft of a minerals agreement as Washington sought rights to US$500 billion (NZ$872.4b) in Ukraine's natural wealth. Kyiv protested it had received far less than that in US aid and the deal lacked the security guarantees Ukraine needs.
Asked what Ukraine would get in return for the minerals deal, Trump cited what he said was $350b already provided by the US "and lots of ... military equipment and the right to fight on."
On how long the US will continue providing weapons, Trump said: "It could go forward for a while, and maybe until we have a deal with Russia." But he again predicted the war could be ended quickly, though he did not say how that could happen.
Donald Trump says a mineral deal will get US taxpayers some money back on what they have given Ukraine during its war with Russia. Photo: AFP
European allies scramble
Officials on both sides have agreed to the draft and advised it should be signed, the sources said.
"I hear that he's coming on Friday," Trump told reporters. "Certainly it's okay with me if he'd like to. And he would like to sign it together with me."
European officials have been left flat-footed by Trump's decisions to hold talks on ending the war in Ukraine with Russia, spurning both Kyiv and Europe, and by his administration's warning that the US was no longer primarily focused on Europe's security.
A White House meeting could give Zelensky a chance to make his case for continued US support directly to Trump, who last week falsely accused Kyiv of starting the war.
Ukraine has deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals identified by the European Union as critical, according to Ukrainian data. They include industrial and construction materials, ferroalloy, precious and non-ferrous metals, and some rare earth elements.
Ukraine's reserves of graphite, a key component in electric vehicle batteries and nuclear reactors, represent 20 percent of global resources.
-Reuters
