Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country has agreed on a framework economic deal with the United States that would open up access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral reserves, but that crucial security guarantees from Washington D.C. still need to be negotiated.
Zelensky told reporters at a news conference in Kyiv on Wednesday that the framework deal is a first step in working towards a comprehensive agreement with the US, which will ultimately be subject to a vote in Ukraine’s parliament.
He said that security guarantees, essential to the country’s defense against an unprovoked Russian invasion, could be hammered out in a meeting with US President Donald Trump as early as Friday.
“I would very much like to have this visit,” Zelensky added.
He told reporters that, while he hopes to travel to Washington, D.C. by the end of the week to see Trump and formalize the deal, final arrangements are still being worked out.
Zelensky said he plans to ask Trump whether he plans to continue offering his country military support, whether he plans to relax sanctions on Russia, and whether Ukraine can use Russian assets frozen by sanctions to invest in its defense.
Trump was noncommittal Tuesday when asked if he would continue to supply arms and equipment to Ukraine, telling reporters: “Maybe until we have a deal with Russia.”
His administration has opened up direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Kremlin officials in recent weeks.
In the meantime, Trump has spewed a series of Putin-friendly falsehoods about Zelensky, calling the democratically elected leader a “dictator” and making baseless claims that his approval rating had tanked to 4 percent.
Trump, however, did appear receptive to welcoming his Ukrainian counterpart to sign the agreement between the two countries.
“I hear that he’s coming in Friday, certainly it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me,” Trump said.
But a White House official, speaking anonymously to Reuters on Wednesday, poured cold water on Zelenskyy‘s aspirations, suggesting Washington only wants him to come when he’s ready to sign a final agreement, not negotiate.
“If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalized, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense,” they told the news agency. “There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognize a final position, and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.”
The framework deal—the full text of which was published by the Kyiv Independent—calls for the establishment of a fund where Ukraine would pay 50 percent of money earned from the “future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets.”
Those assets would include minerals, as well as oil and gas. Ukraine has large deposits of cobalt, graphite lithium and other critical minerals, as well as so-called rare earth elements which are crucial components to industries ranging from computing to defense to electric cars.
Washington dropped an initial demand that would have guaranteed $500 billion in potential revenue from the resources—Ukrainian and European officials strongly objected.
