Washington:
Following a tumultuous Oval Office meeting on Friday, the Trump administration and Ukraine are set to sign a long-awaited minerals deal, as reported by four sources familiar with the situation on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump is keen on announcing the agreement during his address to Congress later that evening, according to three sources. However, the deal has not been finalized yet, and circumstances may change.
The White House has not responded to requests for comment, while Ukraine’s presidential administration in Kyiv and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington have also remained silent.
The signing of the deal was postponed last week after a heated exchange between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy during their meeting in the Oval Office, which led to Zelenskiy’s abrupt departure from the White House.
During the meeting, Trump and Vice President JD Vance criticized Zelenskiy, suggesting that he should express gratitude for U.S. support instead of seeking additional aid in front of the media.
“You’re risking World War III,” Trump warned.
Despite the fallout from the meeting, U.S. officials have been in talks with Ukrainian officials to move forward with the minerals deal and have encouraged Zelenskiy’s advisors to persuade the Ukrainian president to publicly apologize to Trump.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Zelenskiy expressed Ukraine’s readiness to sign the deal and described the Oval Office meeting as “unfortunate.”
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go as planned,” Zelenskiy stated. “Ukraine is prepared to engage in negotiations promptly to advance lasting peace.”
The specifics of the deal remain unclear. The initial agreement, set to be signed last week, did not include explicit security assurances for Ukraine but granted the U.S. access to Ukraine’s natural resource revenues. It also outlined that the Ukrainian government would allocate 50% of future earnings from state-owned natural resources to a U.S.-Ukraine reconstruction investment fund.
Trump indicated on Monday that his administration is still open to finalizing the deal, asserting that Ukraine “should show more appreciation.”
“We have stood by them through thick and thin,” Trump emphasized. “We have provided them with more support than Europe, and Europe should have done more for them.”
(This story has been published from a syndicated feed without any editorial changes by NDTV staff.)
