President Donald Trump on Wednesday said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would visit the White House on Friday to sign “a very big agreement” under which Kyiv will hand revenue from its mineral resources to the US as payment for military aid.
Mr Trump, who is seeking to bring a quick end to Russia's war in Ukraine, made the announcement during his first cabinet meeting, which was also attended by Elon Musk. “Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday, that's now confirmed, and we're going to be signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement,” he said.
Mr Zelenskyy had originally baulked at the offer, under which Ukraine would give the US $500 billion in mineral wealth. He said Washington had supplied nowhere near that sum in aid, and that the agreement did not come with enough security guarantees.
“Well, I'm not going to make security guarantees,” Mr Trump said. “We're going to have Europe do that because it's in – you know – we're talking about Europe, it's their next-door neighbour, but we're going to make sure everything goes well.”
The US and Russia held talks in Saudi Arabia last week aimed at ending the war in Ukraine. The talks excluded Ukraine and European countries, in a stark reversal of US foreign policy three years after Russia began its full-scale invasion.
Mr Trump has faced criticism for calling Mr Zelenskyy a "dictator", while at the same time showering praise on "very smart" Russian President Vladimir Putin. But he said on Wednesday that he would be pushing for Russia to make concessions including relinquishing some of the Ukrainian territory it seized by force.
"We're going to do the best we can to make the best deal we can for both sides," Mr Trump said. "For Ukraine, we're going to try very hard to make a good deal so that they can get as much [land] back as possible."
He said Ukraine should "forget about” joining the Nato military alliance. “I think that’s probably the reason the whole thing started,” he said. Mr Trump said he hopes to speak with Mr Putin in person soon, in the hope of reaching an agreement to end the war.
Mr Trump, who took office last month, campaigned on a promise to quickly end the war and stop US military aid for Ukraine. He says the US has grossly overspent American taxpayers' money on the conflict and that European countries much closer to the war need to step up.
He said the deal is necessary to pay back the US aid disbursed under his predecessor, Joe Biden. The agreement would give the US access to rare earth deposits in Ukraine for years to come. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to meet Mr Trump in Washington on Thursday, and urge him to maintain US support for Ukraine.
Also on Wednesday, a planned meeting between EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was abruptly cancelled due to “scheduling issues", as political tension has increased between Europe and the US.
Officials from both sides blamed scheduling challenges for preventing the pair, who met at the Munich Security Conference in Germany last month, from meeting in Washington. However, European officials said they were caught off-guard, AP reported.
In wide-ranging comments at the start of his cabinet meeting, Mr Trump also said decisions regarding the future of the ceasefire and the hostage-release deal in Gaza should be made by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who he referred to as "Bibi".
"That's a decision that has to be made by Israel, by Bibi, but Israel has to make that decision. We got a lot of hostages back," he said.
Hamas was set to hand over the bodies of four Israeli hostages late on Wednesday in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. The first phase of the ceasefire agreement between Hamas and Israel expires on Saturday.
