The United States and Ukraine said Sunday they were moving toward a deal for Kiev to transfer most of its rare earth mineral rights to Washington in compensation for hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. arms shipments to Ukraine to defend it from an all-out war with Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kiev that Ukraine and the United States had “made progress” toward a deal. He said the draft agreement calls for Ukraine to pay the United States $2 for every dollar of U.S. military aid it gives Kiev, but details of the deal have not yet been disclosed.
Zelensky called for Ukraine’s security guarantees to be part of any deal and said he wanted better financial terms. “I don’t want terms that 10 generations of Ukrainians have to pay back,” he said.
The war will be three years old on Monday.
The United States has been Ukraine’s largest aid donor, providing Ukraine with $128 billion in military and humanitarian aid, according to Germany’s Kiel Institute for the World Economy. The U.S. aid is slightly higher than the $124 billion given by the 27 European Union countries combined.
U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he expected Zelenskiy to sign the mineral deal this week.
Zelenskiy initially rejected U.S. demands for half of Ukraine’s supply of rare earth minerals, which are used to make technology products. Witkoff said in the CNN interview that the deal will now be completed, but did not disclose details of the agreement.
Witkoff said European countries contributed to Ukraine’s war effort after reaching a final repayment agreement with Kiev, but the United States has no such understanding arrangement.
Witkoff said such unconditional U.S. support for Ukraine “makes no sense” to President Donald Trump, who had a long career in New York real estate deals before entering politics in 2015.
“I reached a deal with (former President Joe) Biden and the U.S. Congress, and I thank Congress and both parties. This is support through grants. Grants are not loans. We don’t have to pay back loans here. Maybe some people don’t like it and think it’s unfair. Maybe. I don’t know. But this is the deal. It’s a grant. So it’s not about numbers. We don’t think it’s a loan at all.”
Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” last week and accused him of starting a war despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump demanded that Zelensky repay the debt and blamed his predecessor Biden for failing to get some form of compensation guarantee.
Zelensky said Sunday that he hopes Trump “understands” his position and offers specific security guarantees to help Kiev resist the Russian invasion.
Zelensky told a press conference, “I very much hope that Trump can understand each other” and “the security guarantees provided by Trump are very much needed.”
Zelensky said he would be willing to give up the presidency if it meant peace in Ukraine, and joked that he could trade his departure for Ukraine’s membership in NATO, which Russia strongly opposes.
“If (it means) peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my position, I am willing to do it,” Zelensky said. “If the conditions are met, I can leave immediately in exchange for NATO membership.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met in Saudi Arabia last week to lay the groundwork for peace talks to end the war, but Ukrainian and European officials were not in attendance. Zelensky complained that Ukraine was excluded from the talks, but Trump said he could have negotiated with Russia beforehand to persuade Moscow not to invade.
“My talks with Putin were very good, but the talks with Ukraine were not so good,” Trump told U.S. governors at the White House.
“They didn’t have any cards, but they played very hard,” Trump said of Ukraine.
Russian state television said recently that Trump’s views on the Russia-Ukraine conflict “are exactly the same as ours.”
Witkov said the war “should not have happened” if Ukraine had not pushed to join NATO at the time. Kiev is still pressing to join the 32-member NATO alliance, but Washington says it’s unrealistic to do so as part of a negotiated peace settlement to end the war.
Ultimately “you’ll see both sides give in a signed peace deal,” Witkov said.
Russia currently controls about a fifth of internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Sunday that Moscow has no intention of returning any land to the Kiev government.
“The Ukrainian people decided to join Russia a long time ago,” he said, referring to a vote orchestrated by Moscow in eastern Ukraine. That vote, held amid a three-year offensive in eastern Ukraine, has been slammed as a sham by Kiev, Western and international observers.
“No one is going to sell these territories,” Peskov said. “That’s the most important thing.”
Trump’s call with Putin two weeks ago set the stage for Rubio’s talks with Lavrov in Saudi Arabia.
“This is a conversation between two outstanding presidents,” Peskov told state television.
Russia celebrated Defender of the Fatherland Day on Sunday, a holiday honoring servicemen and veterans. In a video released by the Kremlin, Putin said God and destiny had given him and his army the “mission” to defend Russia.
Drone attacks, calling them “air terror.” Ukrainian officials reported damage in five Ukrainian regions.
Zelensky said Russia had launched nearly 1,150 attack drones, more than 1,400 guided air bombs and 35 different types of missiles into Ukraine in the past week.
