Ukraine’s Zelensky will meet with Trump before Vladimir Putin, will sign mining deal
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he’s optimistic Donald Trump will meet with him before the US President talks with Vladimir Putin ahead of an historic mining deal.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that it is “a very good signal” that President Trump is meeting with him before Russian President Vladimir Putin — as the leader of the war-torn country prepares for a trip to Washington on Friday to sign a deal on mineral rights.
The agreement will grant the US 50 per cent of revenue from Ukrainian critical and rare-earth mineral sales, mr Zelensky said at a press conference at the Ukrainian president’s office.
It won’t include security guarantees, but the Ukrainian leader said he will press President Trump on whether he intends to stop sending Ukraine military weapons to help fight off Russia.
While the Friday deal establishing the terms can be signed between the two presidents, another agreement will be needed in the future to create a sovereign fund that the nations will split, according to the New York Post.
It could take roughly five to seven years to begin profiting off the resources, because a new geological survey is needed and both mines and resource processing facilities will need to be built.
Mr Zelensky also said the agreement will help repair the tense relations between Kyiv and Washington, adding that he was convinced to sign the deal once negotiators indicated it would not be made as debt repayment, as Mr Trump has repeatedly suggested.
“I will not agree to even 10 cents [of debt],” he said. “It’s not about not being grateful [for Biden-era aid] — we are.”“The main thing was that we don’t owe anything to be reimbursed.”
Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer will make his allegiance to Ukraine clear when he meets with US President Donald Trump on Thursday with the UK leader labelling Vladimir Putin a “tyrant” in a powerful speech to parliament.
Sir Keir has announced $8 billion of support for the Ukrainian fight, and increased training for the Ukrainian armed forces.
“One of the great lessons of our history is that instability in Europe will always wash up on our shores, and that tyrants like Putin only respond to strength,” Sir Keir said.
“Russia is a menace in our waters, in our airspace and on our streets. They have launched cyber attacks on our National Health Service, only seven years ago a chemical weapons attack on the streets of Salisbury.
“We must stand by Ukraine, because if we do not achieve a lasting peace, then the economic instability are threats to our security, they will only grow.”
Sir Keir will visit the White House in an attempt to build on the momentum of French President Emmanuel Macron and convince Mr Trump to provide security guarantees for Ukraine in the event of a successful ceasefire with Russia.
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KREMLIN REJECTS TRUMP’S PEACEKEEPERS CLAIM
US President Donald Trump said the Ukraine war could end “within weeks” as he met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House over ending the conflict.
Mr Macron sought to persuade Mr Trump to stick by Kyiv, insisting that Ukraine “must be involved” in talks after the US president opened direct talks with Moscow over the war.
Mr Trump also revealed that Russian President Vladimir Putin would accept European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine as part of a potential peace deal to end the three-year-old war.
“Yeah, he will accept that. I’ve asked him that question,” Mr Trump told reporters in the Oval Office while hosting Mr Macron.
“Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for more war. He doesn’t mind,” Mr Trump added.
“But I’ve specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.”
However Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters soon after Mr Trump made the remarks that the Kremlin’s stance on the issue of foreign troops in Ukraine remained unchanged.
“The Russian foreign minister has already said everything about it – I’ve got nothing to add,” Peskov said.
Peskov was referring to comment made by Sergei Lavrov last week following his meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“The deployment of troops (from) NATOcountries, but under a foreign flag, under the flag of the European Union or under national flags … is of course, unacceptable to us,” Lavrov said.
It’s unclear whether the European troops would be stationed inside currently Russian-occupied areas of eastern Ukraine or within Kyiv-held territory to deter further air strikes.
Mr Macron said through a translator that a potential deployment of troops from his own nation to Ukraine would “be there to maintain peace, they would not be along the front lines, they would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected.
The meeting with Mr Macron marked the first of two closely watched encounters between Mr Trump and European leaders this week, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer — who has also backed peacekeepers in the war-torn nation — due to visit on Thursday.
Mr Trump also said that he was open to visiting Mr Putin in Moscow after fighting ends — though he added that May 9 commemorations of the Allied victory over Nazi Germany in World War II would be too soon.
“If this all gets settled out, which I think it will, sure I would go and he’d come here too,” Mr Trump said.
The American president spoke shortly after the US joined Russia in voting against a pro-Ukraine measure at the United Nations calling for a “just, comprehensive and lasting peace.”
“I would rather not explain it now, but it’s sort of self-evident,” he told reporters of the vote, in which the US joined the likes of Russia, Belarus, Haiti, Hungary, Israel, Nicaragua and North Korea in opposing the resolution.
Mr Trump also said he believes the US and Russia could bolster economic co-operation as part of the Ukraine peace process — after stiff American sanctions during the three-year war.
“We’re trying to do some economic development deals [with Russia]. They have a lot of things that we want, and we’ll see. I mean, I don’t know if that will come to fruition, but we’d love to be able to do that, if we could,” he said.
“You know, they have massive rare earth. It’s a very large — it’s actually the largest in terms of land. It’s by far the largest country. And they have very valuable things that we could use, and we have things that they could use, and it would be very good if we could do that. I think it would be a very good thing for world peace and lasting peace.”
Mr Trump added that “the first element of the overall transaction is ending the war. But if, just as we’re doing with Ukraine, if we could do some economic development in terms of Russia and getting things that we want, something like that would be possible, yes.”
LEADERS CONVERGE ON KYIV
It comes as European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in Kyiv in a show of support for Ukraine on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
Presidents and prime ministers from Baltic and Nordic countries and Spain arrived by train, joining EU chief Ursula von der Leyen and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the Ukrainian capital, according to various social media posts and Ukraine’s Suspline public broadcaster.
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky hailed his country’s “resistance” and “heroism”.
“Three years of resistance. Three years of gratitude. Three years of absolute heroism of Ukrainians,” he said, adding: “I thank everyone who defends and supports it.”
Von der Leyen expressed her feelings on social media.
“We are in Kyiv today, because Ukraine is Europe. In this fight for survival, it is not only the destiny of Ukraine that is at stake. It’s Europe’s destiny,” she said in a post on X.
In an apparent rebuke of Mr Trump’s moves to sideline Kyiv from talks on how to end the war, EU Council President Antonio Costa said: “In Ukraine, about Ukraine, with Ukraine.”
Mr Zelensky on has offered to resign if it meant Ukraine could be given NATO membership.
The Kremlin on the eve of the anniversary repeated Russia’s position that it would not give up territory it has captured in Ukraine’s east and south.
Moscow has also said it would not accept Ukrainian admission to NATO.
Europe has been left scrambling to respond as Mr Trump and his team have not only questioned support for Ukraine, but also decades of transatlantic security co-operation between the United States and its key European allies.
Ukrainian soldiers in the east told AFP they were nervous about Mr Trump’s bid for a swift ceasefire.
“It scares me more. Because the bloodiest moments always come before a truce,” said Andrii, a 25-year-old serving with Ukraine’s army in the east.
“In this war, you don’t count days, weeks, numbers, or any dates,” said Mykola, a 38 year-old gun commander stationed in the eastern Donetsk region.
“I don’t want to give up Ukrainian lands … we’ve been fighting for so long,” he told AFP on the eve of the anniversary. “But everyone is tired of the war.”
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Originally published as Ukraine’s Zelensky will meet with Trump before Vladimir Putin, will sign mining deal
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