Donald Trump insists multi-billion-dollar mineral deal with Ukraine is the only security guarantee country will get

Donald Trump last night insisted a multi-billion-dollar mineral deal with Ukraine was the only security guarantee the country is going to get.

Ahead of a White House showdown today with Volodymyr Zelensky, he appeared to rule out any US military ‘backstop’ to keep Russia at bay following a ceasefire.

Mr Zelensky and Sir Keir Starmer want to persuade the US President to provide air support for any European post-conflict peacekeeping force in Ukraine. But Mr Trump, who has already ruled out sending any ground troops, suggested the business deal over natural resources would suffice.

At his meeting with the Prime Minister in Washington yesterday the President said the minerals deal ‘is the backstop’.

Mr Zelensky and Mr Trump are expected to sign the multi-billion dollar mineral agreement today.

But ahead of that meeting, Ukraine’s leader has vowed to be ‘very direct’ about his country’s need for Nato membership or ‘something similar’.

Meanwhile, asked by a reporter yesterday whether he still believes Mr Zelensky is a dictator, Mr Trump replied: ‘Did I say that? I can’t believe I would say that.’ 

He made the remark on social media last week in reference to the cancellation of elections in Ukraine during the conflict with Russia. 

Mr Trump added: ‘Zelensky is coming here tomorrow morning. We are going to sign the deal. It is going to get us into the country. So it is a backstop you can say. I look forward to working with him and we will be talking about it [security guarantees].’

While the minerals deal does not include such guarantees, President Trump has previously said it provides ‘automatic security’ as no country, Russia included, is ‘going to mess with our people when we’re there’.

The document only says the ‘United States of America will maintain a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine’. According to reports yesterday, President Trump wanted to cancel today’s meeting with Mr Zelensky fearing the Ukrainian president would press him on Nato membership.

The visit was apparently resurrected following an eleventh-hour intervention by French president Emmanuel Macron, who was said to have called the White House on Mr Zelensky’s behalf.

The United States and Ukraine could end up sharing hundreds of billions of dollars from mining metallic compounds which are used in mobile phones, electric cars and defence application.

Ukraine is estimated to contain 5 per cent of the world’s critical raw materials, including 19m tons of graphite and the group of 17 rare earth elements.

Plans for Mr Zelensky’s visit to the US were finalised yesterday as Vladimir Putin railed against Western elites for undermining talks between the Cold War superpowers. The Russian president was positive about initial talks with America over Ukraine.

Speaking in Moscow yesterday, he revealed: ‘The first contact with the new US administration gives some hope. There is a mutual desire to work on restoring relations. [But] some Western elites will try to undermine our dialogue.’

It also emerged yesterday that North Korea has agreed to send as many as 3,000 troops to bolster Kremlin efforts to remove the remaining Ukrainian forces occupying the southern province of Kursk. Last year, North Korea deployed 12,000 soldiers, but this proved ineffective mainly due to language issues and Russia using them as cannon fodder.

It has been estimated 4,000 were killed with thousands more wounded. Ukraine has defied expectations by holding on to territory in Kursk, which it hopes to use as a bargaining chip in negotiations. Russia is determined to keep the territory it occupies in eastern Ukraine.

After today’s anticipated meeting with President Trump, Mr Zelensky is expected to fly to the UK on Sunday for talks with Sir Keir and European leaders including Mr Macron.