The Trump administration may seek to strike a simplified minerals deal with Ukraine to get a pact in place quickly and later negotiate detailed terms, such as how much of Ukraine's vast resources the U.S. would own, two people with knowledge of the matter told Reuters on Wednesday.
This follows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's rejection of a detailed U.S. proposal last week that would have seen Washington receiving 50% of Ukraine's critical minerals, which include graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium, the latter a key component in electric car batteries.
That episode made clear that reaching a full deal will take time, the sources said. But U.S. President Donald Trump wants a pact with Ukraine in place before potentially authorizing more U.S. military support for Kyiv or moving ahead with a bid to broker formal peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the three-year-old war, which was triggered by Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.
Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg is in Kyiv this week to discuss the parameters of a revised pact and what Ukraine needs in return for signing.
Zelenskyy said he would meet with Kellogg on Thursday "and it is crucial for us that this meeting - and overall cooperation with America - be constructive."
When asked if U.S. officials would continue to pursue a deal, a Trump adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity, said about Zelenskyy: "Absolutely, we need to get this guy back to reality."
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The push for a deal continues despite a widening rift between Trump and Zelenskyy. Trump denounced his Ukrainian counterpart as "a dictator without elections" on Wednesday after Zelenskyy said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble, a response to the U.S. president suggesting Ukraine started the war.
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