The White House and Ukraine are closing in on a deal that would hand the United States mineral rights as compensation for military aid, marking a stark reversal by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy from days earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
“This is an agreement that can strengthen our relations, and the key is to work out the details to ensure its effectiveness,” Zelenskyy said in a video address on Friday. “I look forward to the outcome — a just result.”
President Donald Trump also signaled a deal was close, telling reporters gathered in the Oval Office, "We're signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time."
Ukraine refused to sign a deal earlier in the week, leading to sharp exchanges between the leaders. Trump denounced Zelenskyy as a "dictator" while the Ukrainian president asserted that Trump was trapped in a “disinformation bubble.”
Zelenskyy on Wednesday rejected U.S. demands for $500 billion in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the United States had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.
According to State Department figures from the day Trump took office, the U.S. has “provided $65.9 billion in military assistance since Russia launched its premeditated, unprovoked, and brutal full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, and approximately $69.2 billion in military assistance since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in 2014.”
The Congressional Research Service reported last month said the U.S. has appropriated more than $174 billion in funds to Ukraine.
“It’s important to note that of the $175 billion total, only $106 billion directly aids the government of Ukraine. Most of the remainder is funding various U.S. activities associated with the war in Ukraine, and a small portion supports other affected countries in the region,” the Council of Foreign Relations said last September.
Regardless, the Journal reported the deal could be signed as early as Saturday, though it did not report exact terms.
Zelenskyy credited Trump’s Ukraine envoy, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, for restoring “hope” after the pair met Thursday. Kellogg played “a big part” in helping finalize the deal over a three-day visit to Kyiv, according to the Journal.
Ukraine has valuable deposits of strategic minerals that the U.S. wants. These include uranium, lithium, cobalt, rare earths and more and are used in applications such as batteries, technology and aerospace.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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