Trump to meet Zelenskyy to sign 'very big agreement'

Donald Trump said yesterday that Volodymyr Zelenskyy would visit the White House tomorrow to sign a rare earth minerals deal, but the US would not provide significant security guarantees to Ukraine as part of the agreement.

- Pjotr Sauer Andrew Roth Washington

The conclusion of a deal, which Trump has claimed would allow the US to recoup hundreds of billions of dollars spent on military aid to Kyiv, followed days of negotiations in which Zelenskyy said he wanted the US to guarantee Ukraine's security against the ongoing Russian invasion.

Uncertainty remains over the specifics of the agreement, which would establish a joint fund between the US and Ukraine that would receive revenues from the mining of rare earth metals and other precious minerals as well as some oil and gas revenues.

Trump said during a cabinet meeting that he could confirm Zelenskyy would arrive in Washington to sign a "very big agreement that will be on rare earth and other things". The first full cabinet meeting of Trump's second term featured minimal input from cabinet secretaries, instead focusing on the government-shrinking effort being led by Elon Musk as head of the so-called department of government efficiency (Doge), who described himself in the meeting as "humble tech support".

Zelenskyy had resisted pressure to sign a draft of the deal at the Munich Security Conference earlier this month that would have established a fund 100% owned by the US, according to media reports. “I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to pay back,” he said at a news conference on Sunday.