Trump says Zelenskyy wants to sign minerals deal in U.S., as reports suggest draft agreement reached
U.S. and Ukrainian leaders have recently criticized one another
U.S. President Donald Trump signalled Tuesday that he believes his Ukrainian counterpart will travel to Washington to sign a "very big deal" within days, as multiple reports suggested the two countries reached agreement on the terms of a draft minerals deal.
A source familiar with its contents told Reuters that it does not specify any U.S. security guarantees or continued flow of weapons but says that the Washington wants Ukraine to be "free, sovereign and secure."
According to sources familiar with its contents, the U.S. and Ukraine would establish a fund to collect and reinvest revenues from Ukrainian sources including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.
There appeared to be no immediate comment from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He made not mention of it in his evening video statement. But the Kyiv Independent said the president's office had confirmed an agreement had been reached.
Discussions had been underway over potential U.S. access to Ukraine's rare-earth and other critical minerals — an exchange Trump had cast as a form of "equalization" for aid the U.S. has provided to Kyiv over the course of its all-out war with Russia. Ukrainian officials had rejected terms the U.S. initially proposed.
Ukraine has relied heavily on U.S. support across its three-year fight against Russia's invasion. But the Trump administration is pushing to end the war, and tensions have been rising between Trump and Zelenskyy.
Russia frowns on European peacekeepers
On Tuesday, Trump told reporters there needs be some form of peacekeeping troops in Ukraine if an agreement to end the conflict is struck.
He told reporters on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of such a deal. A day later, the Kremlin denied that was the case.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refrained from publicly contradicting the U.S. president, but effectively reaffirmed Russia's opposition to the idea.
"There is a position on this matter that was expressed by the Russian Foreign Minister, [Sergei] Lavrov. I have nothing to add to this and nothing to comment on. I leave this without comment," said Peskov.
Russia has repeatedly said it opposes having NATO troops on the ground in Ukraine, with Lavrov saying last week that Moscow would view that as a "direct threat" to Russia's sovereignty, even if the troops operated there under a different flag.
Brian Hughes, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, did not respond directly to the Kremlin's latest comment, saying the Trump administration would continue to work with Moscow and Kyiv to end the war.
"President Trump's commitment to achieving an end to this brutal, bloody war and then establishing the framework for a lasting peace will not be negotiated through the media," Hughes said.
"The Trump administration knows that sustaining peace requires Europe to do more, and we have heard leaders like [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron and British Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer — as well as others — offer to do just that. We continue to work with Russia and Ukraine for peace because you can't end a war without talking to both sides."
Calls from Trump for war to end
Prior to re-entering the White House, Trump repeatedly claimed he'd be able to end the Ukraine conflict within 24 hours.
A month after returning to power, Trump still hasn't brought an end to the war.
However, his administration has begun turning sharply from prior U.S. policy, with Trump ending the isolation of Putin, having a conversation with the Russian leader, and then deciding to hold talks with Russia on ending the war.
Ukraine was informed of Trump's course of action after the fact. It was also left out of talks the U.S. held with Russia in Saudi Arabia last week.
More recently, Trump has publicly feuded with Zelenskyy, calling him a "dictator without elections," a reference to the fact that Ukrainian elections have been delayed by the war. Zelenskyy has in turn suggested that Trump is living in a Russian-made "disinformation space."
The war has killed thousands of civilians in Ukraine, and displaced millions. More than 200,000 structures have reportedly been destroyed.
But Ukraine has also brought the war to Russian soil, including through the seizure of a swath of Russia's Kursk region, which Moscow has yet to fully reclaim. Ukraine has also undertaken an ongoing campaign to make strikes on infrastructure deep inside Russian territory using long-range drones.
Amid Trump's push to bring the war to an end promptly, some observers have raised concerns about what could happen if that process ends up being too favourable to Russia.
"Nobody wants war. Nobody wants killing. Everybody wants peace, of course," said Leigh Turner, a former U.K. ambassador to Ukraine, when speaking to Times Radio.
But he sees "a big difference" between an outcome that would allow Russia to keep Ukrainian land it has seized and to put other limits on Ukraine, versus a peace which "constrains… and which punishes" Russia for having started the war.
Turner predicts that if Russia gets what it wants in a peace deal, it will likely attack Ukraine again, and that like-minded leaders will be encouraged to pursue territorial conquests of their own.
With files from CBC News