Trump 'set to sign minerals deal with Ukraine’ as Zelensky rebuffs US over power plants

Hours after Zelensky rebuffed Trump’s suggestion the US take ownership of his country’s power plants, the President announced he would ‘shortly’ sign a minerals pact with Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky Picture: Heikki Saukkomaa / Lehtikuva / AFP

Donald Trump has announced that the United States would soon sign a deal with Ukraine for access to its rare earth minerals.

Hours after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuffed Mr Trump’s suggestion that the US take ownership of his country’s power plants, the US President returned to his previous demand that Ukraine compensate the United States for its support in resisting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

In a White House address, Mr Trump said he had signed an order to “dramatically increase” US production of critical minerals and would “very shortly” sign a pact with Ukraine.

“We’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular Ukraine,” he said.

“One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine, which they have tremendous value in rare earths, and we appreciate that.”

Last month, Mr Zelensky blocked an agreement to give US miners access to develop mineral resources, because it did not include sufficient security guarantees against further Russian aggression. His refusal to sign resulted in the infamous blow-up in the Oval Office, with Mr Trump and Vice President JD Vance turning on the Ukrainian leader.

The two men’s relationship has been somewhat repaired since, and on Thursday (AEDT) they held a one hour long phone call in which Mr Zelensky agreed to a partial ceasefire, after Vladimir Putin also agreed to halt attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days.

During his call with Mr Zelensky Mr Trump, who has spooked European and NATO allies by his overtures to Mr Putin and lukewarm commitment to European security, suggested the United States could take over and run Ukraine’s power plants.

But on Friday (AEDT), Mr Zelensky ruled that out.

“We will not discuss it. We have 15 nuclear power units in operation today. This all belongs to the state,” he said.

Mr Zelensky said the nuclear plants legally belonged to the Ukrainian people but that Kyiv was open to US investment once Ukraine got back control of the Zaporizhzhia plant, seized by Russian troops at the start of the war.

“If they want to take it back from the Russians, if they want to modernise it, invest — this is a different question, this is an open question, we can talk about it,” Mr Zelensky added.

Mr Zelensky also urged European leaders to step up weapon supplies to Ukraine, as top military brass gathered in London to thrash out plans to police any peace deal.

Europe is scrambling to weigh on the outcome as the US President forges ahead with Russia on efforts to end its war on Ukraine.

Speaking by video call to an EU summit in Brussels, Mr Zelensky said Russia had continued striking Ukraine’s energy system despite Russian President Vladimir Putin agreeing a halt with Mr Trump.

“Yesterday evening, another Russian strike hit our energy infrastructure,” he said.

“Despite Putin’s words about allegedly being ready to stop the attacks — nothing has changed.”

Over the last two days there has since been no let-up in strikes, and both countries reported a barrage of new drone strikes overnight, as questions remained about the exact details of any lasting peace deal.

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Luxembourg's Prime Minister Luc Frieden speak at a European Union Summit in Brussels on Thursday. Picture: Ludovic Marin / AFP

Mr Zelensky said Mr Putin must “stop making unnecessary demands that only prolong the war” as he called on the EU to ramp up arms deliveries and keep sanctions in force.

In the UK, Prime Minister Keir Starmer addressed the closed-door meeting of military leaders at the Permanent Joint Headquarters north of London.

He said plans for allied countries to safeguard a potential Ukraine ceasefire were “coming together” and that the talks were focused on turning the “political intention” of security guarantees for Ukraine into “reality”.

“Whether that’s in relation to what might happen at sea or air or defending borders, and those plans are coming together,” he said.

Speaking ahead of the talks, Sir Keir also stressed that any agreement to end fighting in Ukraine would need to be “defended” to stop Russia from violating it.

“If there’s a deal, it has to be defended, because there (have) been deals in the past that haven’t had security arrangements and Putin’s taken no notice of them,” he said.

Sir Keir has spearheaded efforts with French President Emmanuel Macron to form a so-called “coalition of the willing” to police any truce in Ukraine, and both say they are willing to put their own troops on the ground.

Russia has said it will not accept the presence of any NATO troops in Ukraine but Washington has not yet indicated whether it would be willing to provide a security backstop.

Despite Mr Trump going cold on support for Ukraine, the United States is looking at helping Kyiv to acquire additional air defence systems to counter Russia’s ballistic missiles.

“This is extremely important,” said the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, who is pushing member states to meet a Ukrainian request for two million shells worth five billion euros ($8.62 billion), though no headway was made on the plan at Thursday’s summit.

According to a White House readout, Mr Zelensky on Wednesday asked Mr Trump for help in obtaining US-made “Patriot missile systems” to bolster its current stock provided by the United States, Germany and Romania.

At the Kremlin, spokesman Dmitry Peskov questioned whether Europe, where governments are looking at steep increases in domestic defence spending, was committed to ending the fighting.

“For the most part, the signals from Brussels and European capitals concern plans to militarise Europe,” he said.

Talks on ending attacks on energy facilities involving Ukrainian, Russian and US officials were due to resume on Monday in Saudi Arabia, Mr Zelensky and the Kremlin said separately.

AFP