…But Zelenskyy wants security guarantees
Ukraine and the U.S. have outlined an agreement in which they would jointly fund Ukraine’s future security and reconstruction using an investment fund powered by the country’s rare earth minerals, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday.
However Zelenskyy said the deal would fail if it did not adequately provide for Ukraine’s future security against Russia — and only looked after American interests.
“If I see and hear a broader vision from him [President Donald Trump] — one that aligns with our concept of a just peace for Ukraine — then this agreement can be part of broader security guarantees,” Zelenskyy told a news conference.
Whereas his prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, appeared to offer concrete details at an earlier news conference of how the agreement would be signed and implemented, Zelenskyy was far less equivocal in his account of events.
“This agreement could be a major success, or it could pass quietly,” he said. “The key factor will be my conversation with President Trump,” which Trump said is set for Friday, though Zelenskyy indicated that no final decision about timing had been made.
Zelenskyy said he had “not yet seen the full, final version” but would be reviewing it soon.
The Ukrainian president also gave a far more measured view than that of a senior White House official involved in negotiations, who told NBC News late Tuesday that the agreement was “at the 99 yard line with one inch to go.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Wednesday morning that negotiators were “very close to the finish line,” and said, “We expect the deal to be signed this week.”
“And as President Trump said yesterday, if Zelenskyy wants to come to this White House to sign that deal, he is open to that,” she added.
Relations between Ukraine and its American benefactor have soured over the past week. Trump sparked outrage in Ukraine and Europe by suggesting that Ukraine should use its mineral wealth to pay back the U.S. for military aid delivered during the war.
When Zelenskyy outright rejected the suggestion, Trump falsely called him a “dictator” and repeated the false claim that Ukraine was responsible for being invaded by Russia.
The deal detailed by Zelenskyy and his administration Wednesday appeared to find compromise on some of the disagreements, but also left much up in the air.
The U.S. and Ukraine have outlined their intention to establish an investment fund, drawing money from as-yet untapped seams of Ukraine’s wealth of rare earth minerals. Both countries would then use this fund to invest in Ukraine’s reconstruction and security, Shmyhal said in an earlier address.
However, Zelenskyy said that the exact nature of these security guarantees — the central priority for Ukraine — were still unclear.
“Although this agreement is economic, I strongly advocated for at least some mention of security guarantees for Ukraine,” he said.
“Government officials briefed me that security guarantees were included in the agreement in some form, but I don’t yet have full details.”
Another key point for Zelenskyy is that Ukraine’s critical and rare earth minerals will not be used to pay back the U.S. for military and humanitarian assistance provided so far.
The fund would only include new mineral deposit licenses, rather than existing operations, and all profits would be split evenly, the Ukrainian president said.
Trump has repeatedly criticized the multibillion-dollar assistance given to Kyiv under then-President Joe Biden. He says these costs should be underwritten by European powers, on whose doorstep the conflict sits.
Excavators mine rare earth materials in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine on Tuesday.Kostiantyn Liberov / Libkos via Getty Images
Trump has said he’ll resolve within 24 hours Russia’s three-year-old full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He and his aides since extended this timeline to six months. The senior administration official said Tuesday that a peace deal was 30-60 days away, without elaborating on how this ambitious timeline would be achieved.
Ukraine has for months supported the idea of giving Trump access to its wealth of critical rare earth elements, which are used for everything from green technology to modern weaponry. Zelenskyy hoped this would incentivize the White House to continue supporting Kyiv with military aid, something Trump has questioned in the past.
In a likely appeal to Trump’s transactional deal-maker spirit, Russia simultaneously proposed an agreement under which the U.S. would gain some ownership of rare earth minerals and other valuable metals in parts of Ukraine controlled by the Russian military, according to two American officials familiar with intelligence on the matter and another person briefed on the proposal.
Russian and American officials are expected to hold a technical-level meeting on Thursday in Istanbul, according to the Turkish Communications Directorate.
