Zelenski to meet Trump in Washington to sign the mineral deal

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski will meet with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday to sign an agreement to share the mineral resources of his country, Trump said.

Zelenski described the bilateral transaction as preliminary and stated that he wanted additional agreements that include US security guarantees to deter the renewed Russian aggression.

But Trump said the US would not guarantee “beyond … much”, saying that responsibility should fall to Europe instead.

Trump also at first glance ruled out the prospect of Ukraine to become a NATO member – one of Zelenski’s long -standing ambitions.

Speaking at a meeting on his office on Wednesday, Trump said the presence of American workers extracting rare earth metals on Ukrainian soil would provide “automatic security” for Ukraine.

He said Kiev should “forget” to join NATO and repeat Russia’s claims that the issue is one of the driving factors behind the war.

The US President has suggested that the fire between Ukraine and Russia have ended, telling reporters: “We will make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop killing people.”

But Zelenski said that without guarantees of security “We will have no truce, nothing will work, nothing.”

“I want to find a NATO way or something,” he said.

Russia consistently opposed the idea of ​​Ukraine to become a member, fearing that it would bring NATO forces too close to its borders.

In 2008, the Alliance had said Ukraine could eventually join.

Zelenski said the success of the mineral deal, which was officially supported by his government on Wednesday night, would depend on the result of his meeting with Trump this week.

The main details have not yet been publicly disclosed, but Ukrainian Prime Minister Dennis Schmikhal said it was planning an “investment fund” for the reconstruction of Ukraine.

The prospect of a deal was proposed for the first time by Zelenski last year as a way to offer the US a tangible reason to continue to support Ukraine.

But disagreements with regard to his substance have sharpened the tension between Trump and Zelenski in recent weeks.

The Ukrainian president rejected a US $ 500 billion request from the United States (£ 395 billion) in mineral wealth, but media reports suggest that this demand has already dropped.

There are also differences in how both sides now describe the deal. Trump praises the “very big agreement” as an opportunity for the United States to receive their “money back” after helping Ukraine’s funding.

But instead, Zelenski cited it as a “framework agreement”, which he hopes to conclude more transactions.

Trump said he wanted a quick end to the war in Ukraine and tried to reset relations with Russia. Following a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, the two leaders sent delegations to Saudi Arabia in bilateral conversations that excluded Ukraine.

In response, Zelenski accused the United States of helping Putin “get out of years of isolation” and Trump to live in a “Russian misinformation space”.

Ukraine is a country rich in natural resources. Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are there. But access to some of these resources will not be completely clear.

Some of the mineral deposits have been seized from Russia. According to Yulia Svyrydenko, the Minister of Economy of Ukraine, resources worth $ 350 billion ($ 277 billion) remain in occupied territories today.

There are also warnings that Ukraine must first deal with its problem with unexplored mines before making a deal with the United States.

A quarter of Ukraine’s land is calculated that it is contaminated with lands concentrated mainly in the war east of the country.

The United Kingdom Prime Minister Sir Kiir Starmer will also meet with Trump and Zelenski separately this week to discuss war in Ukraine.

He must arrive in Washington later on Wednesday.