Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky ‘not ready’ to sign US minerals deal and demands Europe attends peace talks
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is not ready to sign a rare earth minerals deal with the US despite Donald Trump claiming an agreement was close, a Ukrainian source said.
Mr Trump has demanded preferential access to around $500bn of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as repayment for US military support provided to Kyiv by his predecessor Joe Biden over the last three years.
On Friday, the US president said Washington and Kyiv were close to a deal after days of mudslinging and threats in which he labelled Mr Zelensky a “dictator” after Kyiv rejected the proposal as “unserious”.
“There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract $500 billion from us,” the source said on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Mr Zelensky demanded that Europe should be given a seat at any negotiating table with Russia after a “productive” talk with British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer.
The US has so far only sat down with Russia in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, for talks. Mr Trump has dismissed the idea of Kyiv joining peace talks, claiming Zelensky “held no cards” and would only be obstacle to peace.
