The U.S. president announces that Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will visit Washington, DC, on Friday to sign a critical minerals deal between the U.S. and Ukraine.
President Donald Trump stated that the United States will not offer Ukraine significant security guarantees, confirming that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington, DC, on Friday to sign a critical minerals deal.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said on Wednesday. “We’re going to have Europe handle that.”
Earlier, Zelenskyy mentioned that a “preliminary” economic agreement between Ukraine and the U.S. was ready but pointed out that it did not include the security guarantees that Kyiv considers essential to ending the war with Russia.
Zelenskyy noted that the full agreement could depend on talks with Trump later this week in Washington. “This deal could be a great success or it could pass quietly. And the big success depends on our conversation with President Trump,” he said at a news conference in Kyiv.
According to media reports, the agreement will grant the US access to critical minerals in Ukraine in compensation for US assistance in repelling Russia’s full-scale invasion that began in February 2022.
The White House has exerted significant pressure on Kyiv to grant the U.S. access to its extensive mineral reserves, which are vital for the aerospace, defense, and nuclear industries.
This deal is crucial for Ukraine’s efforts to secure strong backing from Trump as he aims for a swift resolution to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, the Ukrainian president stated that the framework economic agreement with the U.S. is an initial step toward a full deal, which would require ratification by Ukraine’s parliament.
The planned visit follows a tense week marked by hostile exchanges between the two leaders, with Trump referring to Zelenskyy as a “dictator.”
Trump has framed the deal as a way to repay the billions of dollars in aid sent to Kyiv during the war.
He announced Zelenskyy’s visit on Wednesday during the first U.S. Cabinet meeting of his second term, calling the deal “a very big agreement.”
“The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we’ve been able to make a deal where we’re going to get the money back, and a lot more in the future,” Trump said.
He also dismissed the idea of Ukraine joining the NATO military alliance.
“NATO – you can forget about it,” Trump said. “I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started.”
Reporting from Kyiv earlier, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford noted that Zelenskyy “still has questions” about the future of the U.S.-Ukraine relationship.
“Ukraine hopes that if the U.S. has major assets in the country, it will be more willing to offer support. But Zelenskyy still questions whether that support will include buying weapons from the U.S.,” he said.
While negotiations on the minerals deal have been ongoing, the Kremlin has attempted to court Trump by praising the U.S. leader and encouraging American investments in natural resources located in Ukrainian territory under Russian control.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced that U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss bilateral issues, which are part of a broader dialogue both sides consider essential to resolving the Ukraine war.
