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Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky (R) with US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent. Photo: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty
The Trump administration has given Ukraine an “improved” draft for a minerals agreement between the countries, after President Volodmyr Zelensky infuriated President Trump by rejecting his initial offer, a Ukrainian official, a U.S. official and three sources with knowledge tell Axios.
Why it matters: The disagreement over minerals helped spark a wider crisis in relations this week, with Trump denouncing Zelensky as a “dictator” who chose war with Russia, and Zelensky accusing Trump of swallowing Russian “disinformation.”
The intrigue: Sources on both sides now say a deal is now looking more likely.
The big picture: Ukraine sits on significant reserves of rare earth minerals critical to the world’s most cutting-edge technologies. In total, the value of the minerals could run into the trillions of dollars.
Catch up quick: The idea for an economic partnership between Ukraine and the U.S. was brought up originally last September by Zelensky during a meeting with Trump in New York.
Between the lines: The Ukrainians were also disappointed that the U.S. draft didn’t include any security guarantees for Ukraine, and that it was being pushed on them at a time when Ukraine was also being excluded from U.S.-Russia talks about Ukraine’s future.
What they’re saying: “Scott Bessent actually went there and was treated rather rudely, because essentially they told him ‘no,'” Trump told reporters on Wednesday. “He came back empty. They wouldn’t sign the document.”
Behind the scenes: Zelensky’s position on the minerals deal was one of the issues that frustrated Trump and other senior U.S. officials and exacerbated the existing tensions over the U.S.-Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia, U.S. and Ukrainian officials say.
State of play: Trump said on Wednesday night that he was trying to “resurrect” the minerals deal.
The latest: Zelensky met on Thursday in Kyiv with U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg and discussed the minerals agreement, the battlefield situation, the return of prisoners of war and security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a future peace agreement.
Scott Bessent, US Treasury secretary, left, and Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Ukraine’s president, during a meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images
War-torn Ukraine sits on significant reserves of rare earth minerals critical to the world’s most cutting-edge technologies.
Why it matters: The U.S. wants them — or else. Talks are ongoing after the Trump administration made a revised proposal for a minerals deal, Axios’ Barak Ravid and Marc Caputo scooped.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrives to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the 61st Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15 in Munich, Germany. Photo: Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a “Meet the Press” interview aired Sunday that he would “never accept” decisions made by the U.S. and Russia about Ukraine’s future, even as the two nations appear poised to engage in peace talks this week.
The big picture: President Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, confirmed Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that he and National Security Adviser Michael Waltz will travel to Saudi Arabia to “hopefully make some really good progress” on the Russia-Ukraine peace process.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a press conference on Feb. 4, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo: Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelensky told President Trump during a phone call on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin is only pretending to want to negotiate a peace deal because he is “afraid of you,” a Ukrainian official and three other sources with knowledge of the call tell Axios.
Why it matters: Trump’s phone calls with Putin and Zelensky on Wednesday launched his diplomatic effort to push for a deal to end the war in Ukraine, and raised concerns among some NATO allies that Trump might be backing Zelensky into a corner by pushing for talks while taking some of his likely demands off the table.
Copyright Axios Media, 2024
What to know about Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, which the U.S. wants
Zelensky warns Ukraine won’t accept decisions made without them in peace talks
Scoop — Zelensky to Trump: Putin pretends to want peace because he’s “afraid of you”
Go deeper
Zelenskiy needs to come back to the table on critical minerals deal, White House says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy needs to come back to the negotiating table and strike a critical minerals deal that recognizes the amount of aid the U.S. has provided the country in its fight against Russia, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said on Thursday.
Zelenskiy 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.
“He needs to come back to the table,” Waltz said of Zelenskiy.
(Reporting By Jeff Mason and Jarrett Renshaw; Editing by Chris Reese)
ANKARA (Reuters) -President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was quoted on Wednesday as saying a U.S. proposal for a critical minerals deal was unfair as it did not include security guarantees, and he did not want Ukraine to become a hub for raw materials.
Last week Kyiv sent Washington a revised draft of an accord that could open up its vast resources of critical minerals to U.S. investment in order to help win U.S. support, amid concerns in Kyiv over an earlier U.S. version.
“I said ‘this document is not ready, we will not sign this. You continue to work on this document,” Zelenskiy was quoted as telling some Turkish media after talks in Ankara on Tuesday.
“I am always open to you investing in our country, in our natural resources… But if we are to give something, we have to receive something,” he was quoted as saying by state-owned Anadolu news agency.
“We don’t want to become a centre of raw materials for any continent.”
Zelenskiy had set out the contours of the deal in a Reuters interview this month. The minerals in question would include rare earth varieties, as well as titanium, uranium and lithium among others.
U.S. President Donald Trump, who has not committed to continuing vital military assistance to Ukraine, has said he wants $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured”.
Zelenskiy’s visit to Ankara coincided with a meeting between U.S. and Russian officials in Riyadh, without Ukrainians, over the war in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy said he believed Ukraine had support in Washington but that he wanted to see more backing from Trump.
“We see (the U.S.) have removed Putin from his political isolation, but that is their own decision. But when you say ‘these are our plans to end the war’, this raises questions for us. Where are we? Where on the negotiating table are we? This war is taking place inside Ukraine,” he said.
“There should be people at the negotiating table who can stop (Russian President Vladimir) Putin if he wants to return to war. And they must be able to give us real – not just promises – and concrete security guarantees. We are ready for such a dialogue,” he was quoted as saying.
(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Jonathan Spicer and Philippa Fletcher)
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Waltz: Ukraine needs to ‘tone it down’ amid ‘frustration’ with Zelensky
National security adviser Mike Waltz said Thursday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to “tone it down” amid his escalating feud with President Trump.
In an interview on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends,” Waltz said, “There’s obviously a lot of frustration here,” pointing to Zelensky’s apparent resistance to signing a proposed agreement to supply the U.S. with rare earth minerals in exchange for military support.
Waltz said not just Trump, but Vice President Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent are also “frustrated” with Zelensky after meeting with him last week.
“And that’s because we presented the Ukrainians really an incredible and historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy,” and provide Ukraine “the best security guarantee they could ever hope for, much more than another pallet of ammunition,” Waltz said.
“Why we’re getting this pushback and certainly this, kind of, as the vice president said, ‘bad-mouthing’ in the press for all the administration has done, in his first term as well, and all the United States has done for Ukraine, it’s just — it’s unacceptable,” Waltz continued.
“They need to tone it down and take a hard look and sign that deal,” he added.
Bessent, who visited Ukraine last week, said striking an economic deal would send a message to Russia that Washington stands alongside Kyiv and would “provide a long-term security shield for all Ukrainians.” The Treasury secretary said last week that he gave a draft of the proposal to Zelensky.
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Trump has said he wants Kyiv to give some $500 billion worth of rare earth elements to the U.S. as a way of repaying the economic and military aid Washington has provided since Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
A testy back-and-forth has quickly escalated after Ukraine was left out of talks between U.S. and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, drawing a rebuke from Zelensky.
Trump responded Tuesday with unfounded allegations that Zelensky “started” the war, with the Ukrainian leader responding Wednesday that the U.S. president was living in a “web of disinformation.”
Trump took to Truth Social hours later, calling Zelensky a “dictator without election” who was doing a “terrible job.”
Vance criticized Zelensky’s retort to Trump, telling the Daily Mail on Wednesday, “The idea that Zelensky is going to change the president’s mind by badmouthing him in public media … everyone who knows the president will tell you that is an atrocious way to deal with this administration.”
Waltz, in the interview Thursday, also defended the administration’s approach and pushed back on the suggestion that the U.S. is circumventing its allies as it seeks to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
“This notion that the Ukrainians haven’t been consulted, I have to push back on that,” Waltz said, noting he’s been talking to his Ukrainian counterpart “on a regular basis” and multiple senior Trump administration officials have already met with Zelensky in Ukraine.
Waltz also said the Trump administration has been engaging with “our European friends,” noting he’s spoken to his counterparts in France, the United Kingdom and Germany, and will be hosting the leaders of the former two next week.
“So we are consulting our allies. We’re consulting the Ukrainians. There’s a term for this in diplomacy. It’s called shuttle diplomacy, because bringing everybody to the table at once just hasn’t worked in the past,” Waltz said. “So we’ve engaged one side, we’ve engaged the other side, and then we’re going to have a process moving forward under President Trump’s direction and leadership.”
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