US President Donald Trump welcomed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday while the couple was preparing to sign a mineral agreement that could open the way at the end of the war in Ukraine.
The agreement would set up an American-joint-joint American-UKrainian “investment fund” which would receive 50% of all the “future monetization” income of natural resources belonging to kyiv.
The text lacks an explicit guarantee of the United States that Zelenskyy had sought, but on Thursday, Trump said that the presence of American workers and economic interests in Ukraine would be a sufficient means of deterrent for a possible Russian attack.
Ukrainian officials were able to persuade the United States to remove some of its most expensive provisions, including law requests at $ 500 billion in potential income.
Zelenskyy will use his visit to try to guarantee a siege at the negotiating table after Trump has blinded kyiv and other European capitals by launching direct talks with Putin on the end of the conflict.
The Ukrainian president said he would reject any peace agreement that kyiv was not involved in the negotiation.
His relationship with Trump was still tense when the American president called him “dictator” this month. However, when he was asked questions about the remark during his meeting with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday, said: “Did I say that?”
