President Donald Trump said Wednesday that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will sign a deal giving the United States substantial rights to Kyiv’s lucrative rare earth minerals and to compensate Washington for weapons sent to Ukraine to fight Russia’s three-year war of aggression.
Trump, at the first Cabinet meeting of his new presidential term, said that Zelenskyy will be at the White House on Friday to sign the pact and for discussions about the state of the war.
Trump said the deal “brings us great wealth,” but said his first goal is to end the war, which has killed or wounded several hundred thousand Russian and Ukrainian soldiers and Ukrainian civilians.
“My No. 2 thing is to get paid back,” Trump said of the more than $100 billion in munitions Washington has shipped to Kyiv to support its fighters. “Without our equipment, that [war] would have been over very quickly,” with Russia overrunning Ukraine.
As it is, Russia now controls about a fifth of Ukraine’s internationally recognized territory and has vowed to not give any of it back in a would-be peace settlement.
Trump said he expects to eventually reach a deal with Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the fighting. Trump initiated talks with Putin about ending the conflict but the first discussions last week between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, excluded Ukrainian and European officials.
“Because I got elected, this war is going to come to an end,” Trump declared. He said Putin “had no intention of settling this. We’re going to have a deal.”
But he said Ukraine “could forget about” joining NATO, the West’s main military alliance, as part of a peace settlement.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy said at a news conference that the framework for the rare earth mineral deal was complete, but that U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine that the Kyiv government views as vital have yet to be settled.
Trump has long expressed skepticism about continued U.S. military support for Ukraine. Last year, he refused to say he wants Ukraine to win the war.
Trump has called Zelenskyy a dictator, without blaming Putin for the invasion.
The U.S. leader has said he is particularly peeved that his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, agreed to the Ukraine military assistance without any provision that Ukraine would pay back the cost. Biden led the coalition of Western allies in providing the military aid as a way to fight Russian aggression without sending their own troops to fight alongside Ukrainian forces.
Zelenskyy says the U.S. military aid was a grant and not a loan that needed to be repaid but now has agreed to the deal for the rare earth minerals needed for manufacturing technology products.
Zelenskyy said he expects to have wide-ranging substantive discussions with Trump.
"I want to coordinate with the U.S.," Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian leader said he wants to know whether the U.S. plans to halt military aid and, if so, whether Ukraine would be able to purchase weapons directly from the U.S. He also wants to know whether Ukraine can use frozen Russian assets for weapons investments and whether Washington plans to lift its economic sanctions on Russian entities and high-level associates and friends of Putin.
Elements of the deal
Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the country’s public television channel that the agreement sets out the terms and conditions of an investment fund for the rebuilding of Ukraine.
Under terms of the deal, the plan would include investing 50% of proceeds from Ukraine’s minerals, oil and gas to create a “stable and economically prosperous Ukraine” if the war is ended, and half to a U.S.-controlled fund.
The New York Times reported the economic agreement includes a line that says the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s effort to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace,” but does not spell out details on what that might entail.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is meeting with Trump on Wednesday in Washington to spell out a European initiative for a 30,000-person peacekeeping force to enforce a Russian ceasefire with Ukraine if such a truce can be reached, although no peace talks have been scheduled.
European leaders have said a peacekeeping force would require an American “backstop” of military assistance, such as American satellite surveillance, air defense or air force support. Trump has not committed the U.S. to such a plan but on Wednesday called the peacekeeping force “a good thing.”
Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
