Ukraine to ‘sign deal' with US as Trump paves way for Zelenskyy to visit Washington

25 February 2025, 23:46

The US and Ukraine have reportedly agreed the terms of a minerals deal that Trump said would see America 'get its money back', as Zelenskyy is set to visit the White House this week.

Donald Trump said the minerals deal, which would see Ukrainian rare earths and valuable minerals exchanged for past and future US military aid, has been 'pretty much negotiated'.

Senior Ukrainian officials also reportedly confirmed the details of the deal had been agreed, which Trump has now seemingly all but confirmed.

Speaking to reporters in the White House while signing executive orders, Trump said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is "coming to visit on Friday" and said the Ukrainian president "would like to sign the minerals deal with me".

If Zelenskyy does visit Washington on Friday, it would come a week after Trump called him a 'dictator' and Ukraine's leader accused Trump of 'living in a disinformation space'.

The proposed agreement would see Ukraine trade the country's natural resources in exchange for US weapons, as Trump said it 'could be worth a trillion dollars'.

But the finer details of the deal are still unclear - though reports suggest the newest draft has left out the American demand to get $500bn (£395bn) worth of minerals as 'payback' for weapons provided to Ukraine.

Ukraine reportedly sees the deal as a good outcome, according to a Ukrainian government official who confirmed the news.

“We have indeed agreed it with a number of good amendments and see it as a positive outcome,” the official told the BBC.

Another Ukrainian government source said Zelenskyy has plans to travel to the US on Friday, confirming what president Trump said.

President Zelenskyy previously said he was not prepared to sign a mineral deal with the US, according to a source close to the negotiations, noting he saw a "number of problematic issues" with the draft agreement.

"Today, the drafts do not reflect a partnership in the agreement and contain only unilateral commitments by Ukraine."

It's reported that the US may have threatened to cut Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite internet system if they did not agree to the deal.

US national security adviser Mike Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference that this deal would be completed soon.

He said: "Here's the bottom line, President Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term."

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Last night, Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy needed to ‘work together’ to achieve peace.

Speaking at the swearing in of his new commerce secretary, Mr Trump also said Russia ‘wants to do a deal’.

He also denied reports that he is planning to visit Moscow. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, has also denied that an agreement for Trump’s visit had been made.

The rebuttals came after a report in a French magazine claimed that Mr Trump would attend Victory Day celebrations in May alongside Putin.

Earlier Trump said Zelenskyy has 'no cards' to negotiate with when it comes to a peace deal.

As tensions continue to rise between the United States and Ukraine, Mr Trump previously said Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s presence at peace negotiations is “not very important.”

It comes just hours after the US held "extensive and positive" talks with President Zelenskyy, according to Trump’s envoy for war.

"I've been watching for years, and I've been watching him negotiate with no cards,” Trump told Fox News on Friday.

“He has no cards. And you get sick of it. You just get sick of it. And I've had it," he added.

"He's been at a meeting for three years, and nothing got done. So, I don't think it's very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you. He makes it very hard to make deals."

Trump went on to hit out at European leaders, including Sir Keir Starmer, for failing to end the war.