Zelenskyy may visit White House on Friday to sign minerals deal - Trump
US President Donald Trump has said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may visit Washington this week to sign a minerals deal.
This was reported by Censor.NET with reference to RBC-Ukraine.
Western media cite Trump's statement that the relevant agreement between the US and Ukraine has already been almost agreed by the parties.
"I have no objection to Zelenskyy coming to Washington on Friday if he wants to," Trump said.
Two sources close to the Ukrainian government told Axios that the deal was reached on Tuesday after two weeks of intense negotiations. The deal is designed to allow the US to get a piece of Ukraine's vast mineral wealth and boost the country's post-war development.
One Axios source said that Zelenskyy managed to agree on a final draft that did not include Washington's key demand for the right to $500 billion in future revenues. The Financial Times had previously reported on such concessions by the US.
The draft agreement states that the US wants to keep Ukraine ‘free, sovereign and secure’, but the document does not mention specific security guarantees.
Meanwhile, two Western media sources said that Ukraine's Cabinet of Ministers will meet tomorrow, 26 February, to approve the deal before Zelenskyy travels to Washington later this week.
Minerals agreement with the US
As a reminder, Trump has said he wants to strike a $500 million deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on access to rare earth resources and natural gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in any potential peace settlement.
President Zelenskyy said that the agreement with the US on minerals would be signed at the ministerial level when ready and subject to guarantees. Currently, this document is not ready to protect Ukraine's interests.
Later, Trump said that Ukraine had disrupted the deal on rare earth metals. The agreement was needed so that the US could recover the money spent on supporting Ukraine.
Later, it was reported that the Trump administration had given Ukraine an "improved" draft of the minerals agreement that "complies with Ukrainian law".
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that if the United States wants to see specific figures in the minerals agreement, then according to Ukrainian law, ratification by the Verkhovna Rada will be necessary.
