President Donald Trump says he will welcome Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the White House on Friday to sign an agreement that grants the United States access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. As reported by Voice of America correspondent Anita Powell, the Ukrainian leader notes that several issues remain unresolved.
President Donald Trump stated that on Friday he will host Ukraine’s leader at the White House to sign an agreement concerning rare earth minerals. The agreement would give the United States essential rights to exploit Ukraine’s rare minerals and compensate Washington for the weapons sent to Kyiv for its three-year war against Russia’s aggression.
“We will sign a very important agreement on minerals and other issues,” said President Trump.
However, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed out a crucial issue not included in the agreement: a concrete security guarantee for Ukraine. Earlier, President Trump dismissed Ukraine’s key aspiration, NATO membership.
“This agreement only generally speaks about security guarantees. But I think it’s not particularly focused on these guarantees. The next steps should be for that. Without security guarantees for the future, we will not have true peace and ceasefire. Without that, nothing will work. We will have nothing,” said Mr. Zelenskyy.
In an interview with Voice of America, Olena Prokopenko from the German Marshall Fund said the mineral agreement was part of President Zelenskyy’s original peace formula.
“It’s difficult for the Ukrainian government to fully accept the offer. Unfortunately, the proposal presented to Ukraine in response to this was too disappointing and one-sided. But now that the agreement seems much more balanced, the Ukrainian government is ready to sign it.”
Ms. Prokopenko, a former advisor to Ukraine’s Minister of Finance, says she expects improvements before the agreement is signed.
“There has been some progress regarding guarantees as one factor, but it will need to be much more detailed in the final agreement because, for now, there is essentially no specific link between security and investments. Currently, it seems like an investment deal rather than a security deal.”
Further details are expected to be finalized before the brutal war in Ukraine ends. Russia currently controls about a fifth of internationally recognized Ukrainian territory. Moscow has pledged not to return any part of what would be a peace agreement. /VOA/
