US Urges Ukraine to Sign Mineral Deal and Stop Insulting Trump

White House officials told Ukraine yesterday to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the country's mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable.

- Luke Harding

Mike Waltz, the US national security adviser, told Fox News that Ukraine's president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should "tone down" criticism of the US and take a "hard look" at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn (£395bn) worth of natural resources, including oil and gas.

Waltz said pushback from Kyiv over Trump's approach to peace talks with Moscow was wrong, given everything the US had done for Ukraine. He denied accusations the US had snubbed Ukraine and America's European allies by excluding them from talks earlier this week with Russia. This was routine "shuttle diplomacy", he said.

Waltz's browbeating comments come a day after Trump called Zelenskyy "a dictator" who refused to hold elections. The US president also blamed Ukraine for its war with Russia.

Zelenskyy, for his part, said Trump was living in a Kremlin "disinformation bubble" and said he wished Trump's team were "more truthful".

The US's rapid dumping of Zelenskyy as an international ally was underlined when Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, cancelled a press conference in Kyiv. He was due to answer questions after meeting Zelenskyy. Journalists were summoned to the presidential palace and stood down.