Trump confirms Zelensky visit to Washington to sign Ukraine minerals deal

KYIV - US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be coming to Washington on Feb 28 to sign an agreement on rare earth minerals and Mr Zelensky said its success would depend on the outcome of their discussions.

The deal, under which Kyiv would hand some revenue from its mineral resources to a fund jointly controlled by the US, is central to Ukrainian attempts to win strong support from Mr Trump as he seeks a quick end to Russia’s war, with US-Russian talks that have so far excluded Kyiv set to continue on Feb 27.

Mr Trump confirmed Mr Zelensky would visit Washington on Feb 28 to sign the agreement on rare earths and other topics but suggested the United States would not be making far-reaching security guarantees.

Kyiv has been seeking US security guarantees as part of the deal, cast by Mr Trump as a payment for US aid to Kyiv during the war.

“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond - very much. We’re going to have Europe do that,” Mr Trump said, without elaborating.

Mr Zelensky said the most important thing was that the current draft did not portray Ukraine as a debtor that would have to pay back hundreds of billions of dollars for past military assistance.

“This agreement could be part of future security guarantees... an agreement is an agreement, but we need to understand the broader vision,” he said in Kyiv.

“This deal could be a great success or it could pass quietly. And the big success depends on our conversation with President Trump.”

He said it would be a success if the US becomes a provider of security guarantees for Ukraine, which wants protection from future Russian attacks if a peace deal is reached.

Fighting has continued in Ukraine during the flurry of diplomacy, with Ukraine frequently coming under attack from Russian missiles and drones in Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II.

Question over Washington trip

Mr Trump said on Feb 25 that Mr Zelensky wanted to come to Washington on Feb 28 to sign a “very big deal”.

Mr Zelensky said both sides were still working on organising the visit and a White House official on Feb 26 raised doubts about whether the visit would go ahead, but Mr Trump later said again that Mr Zelensky would visit on Feb 28.

Mr Trump has been fiercely critical of Mr Zelensky as he upended US policy on the war,

calling him a “dictator”

and ending a campaign to isolate Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.

Mr Trump spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Feb 12 and

a Russian-US meeting took place

in Saudi Arabia on Feb 18.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russian and US diplomats would meet in Istanbul on Feb 27 to discuss resolving bilateral disputes that are part of a wider dialogue the sides see as crucial to ending the Ukraine war.

Mr Lavrov again ruled out “any options” for European peacekeepers being sent to Ukraine, although Mr Trump has said some form of peacekeeping troops are needed in Ukraine if an agreement to end the conflict is struck.

“Nobody has asked us about this,” Mr Lavrov said, during a visit to Qatar.

‘Preliminary agreement’

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Washington would commit to supporting Kyiv’s efforts to obtain security guarantees under the finalised deal, though the Americans offered no security pledges of their own.

Mr Shmyhal said Ukraine’s government was giving its approval to the agreed wording so that it could be signed. He described it as a “preliminary” agreement.

“After the Ukrainian president and the US president agree on security guarantees, agree on how we tie this preliminary agreement to security guarantees from the United States for our country, in the presence of (both) presidents, a representative of the Ukrainian government will sign this preliminary agreement,” he said.

In a comment aimed at calming the fears of worried Ukrainians, Mr Shmyhal said Ukraine would never “sign or consider... a colonial treaty that did not take into account the interests of the state.”

A copy of a draft agreement, seen by Reuters and dated Feb 25, said: “The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace.”

Mr Shmyhal, outlining the agreement in televised comments, said Kyiv would contribute 50 per cent of “all proceeds received from the future monetisation of all relevant state-owned natural resource assets and relevant infrastructure.”

Those proceeds would go into a fund under the joint control of the United States and Ukraine, he said, adding that no decision about the governance of the fund could be taken without Kyiv’s agreement.

“Already existing deposits, facilities, licenses and rents are not subject to discussion when creating this fund,” he added. REUTERS