Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday he hoped to visit Washington on Friday to strike a minerals deal with the United States and discuss future aid with President Donald Trump.
Trump has demanded Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars of wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.
A senior Ukrainian official told AFP late Tuesday that Kyiv had agreed on the terms of the deal, which would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources, and that Zelensky could sign it on Friday in Washington.
“I would like to have this visit very much,” Zelensky told reporters on Wednesday.
“This is just a start, a framework, it can be a big success. The success will depend on our conversation with President Trump,” he added.
Zelensky said that revenues from the resources deal would be deposited in a fund co-owned by Ukraine and the United States, and that Kyiv would not be “a debtor” over aid provided under the Biden administration.
“This would be unfair to us,” Zelensky said.
He also said he would ask Trump whether Washington would halt aid altogether, and if so, whether Ukraine could still buy weapons from the United States.
Ukraine hopes the deal will improve relations with the Trump administration, which have soured in a war of words between Trump and Zelensky.
Kyiv also wants security guarantees, though the current draft of the deal does not place any specific security commitments on the United States, a senior Ukrainian official told AFP.