President Donald Trump has said the US will not provide any critical security assurances for Ukraine as President Voldymee Zelensky will visit Washington, D.C. on Friday to sign a critical minerals contract.
“I don’t intend to provide much security guarantee,” Trump said Wednesday. “We’re going to let Europe do that.”
Zelenskyy previously said a “preliminary” economic agreement between Ukraine and the United States was ready, but noted that the deal still does not include US security guarantees, which Kiev considers essential to end the war with Russia.
Zelensky told a press conference in Kiev this week that there could be a full agreement on the outcome of talks with Trump in Washington.
“This deal can be a huge success or a quiet passing, and the great success depends on the conversations I have with President Trump,” he said.
According to media reports, the agreement grants US access to key Ukraine minerals in compensation for US support to fight off the full-scale Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
The White House put great pressure on Kiev to make the US accessible to the vast reserves of minerals used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries.
The deal is central to Ukraine’s attempts to secure strong support from Trump as it quickly ends the Russian war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian president told reporters in Kiev that economic dealings in the framework with the US are the first step towards an entire agreement that will be subject to ratification by the Ukrainian Parliament.
The planned visit comes after a dramatic week when two leaders exchanged hostile remarks, with Trump calling Zelensky “a dictator.”
Trump threw a deal to Kiev during the war as a repayment of billions of dollars in aid.
He announced his visit to Zelenskyy on Wednesday at the start of the first US Cabinet meeting of his second term, signing a “very big agreement.”
“The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we were able to make deals that would help us get back money and get a lot of money in the future,” Trump said.
He also ruled out the prospect of Ukraine joining the NATO military alliance.
“NATO – you can forget,” Trump said. “I think that’s probably why it all started.”
Reporting earlier from Kyiv, Al Jazeera’s Charles Stratford said that Zelenskyy seemed “still have questions” about the future relationship between the US and Crane.
“The hope for Ukraine is that if the US has major assets in the country, it will come closer to supporting it. But Zelenskyy is still questioning whether, for example, that support will buy arms from the US,” he said.
While debate took place in the mineral trade, the Kremlin tried to seduce Trump by celebrating the US leadership and encouraging American investment in the natural resources of Ukrainian territory, controlled by Russian military forces.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said US and Russian officials would meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss bilateral conflicts, part of a wider dialogue.
Drone attack
The Ukrainian Air Force said Russia has fired at least 177 drones of various types targeting regions around the country. The Ukrinform press said journalist Tetiana Kulyk was among those killed in the attack.
“Her untimely death shocked her colleagues and is a huge loss for the agency,” Uklinform said in a statement.
DTEK, Ukraine’s largest private energy company, said one of its facilities had been damaged in the Dnipropetrovsk region.
At the forefront of eastern Ukraine, the Ukrainian forces launched a successful counterattack in the Donetsk region, saying they controlled the village of Kotlin near the main transport arteries and the logistics hub in Pokrovsk.
Russian forces are also robbing their claws towards the town of Kostiantinivka and are intensively firing civilian hubs in the eastern Donetsk region.
Local governments said five people have been killed and 11 people have been injured in the latest Russian military strike.
The Russian Ministry of Defense said the military controlled two more villages in Russia’s Kursk region, where Ukrainian forces launched a surprising attack last August.
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