US president Donald Trump has said on Tuesday he appreciated Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s willingness to sign a minerals deal with the United States and come to the negotiating table in a bid to end the war with Russia.
Mr Trump said in an address to Congress that Mr Zelenskiy made the declaration in a letter to him earlier in the day.
Mr Zelenskiy posted on X earlier that Ukraine was ready to sign the deal and talk peace and called a contentious Oval Office meeting last week after which it was put on hold “regrettable”.
The Trump administration and Ukraine plan to sign the minerals deal, sources said earlier on Tuesday. Mr Trump had told his advisers that he wanted to announce an agreement in his address to Congress, the sources said, cautioning that the deal had yet to be signed and the situation could change.
Mr Trump’s remarks suggested that progress had been made.
“Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskiy of Ukraine. The letter reads: ‘Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” Mr Trump said.
He said Mr Zelenskiy had said he stood ready to work “under president Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts” and that he valued how much America had done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence.
“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it at any time that is convenient for you,” Mr Trump quoted the letter as saying.
“I appreciate that he sent this letter,” Mr Trump said, adding that “Simultaneously, we’ve had serious discussions with Russia and have received strong signals that they are ready for peace.
Mr Trump has said the agreement will help secure a peace deal by giving the United States a financial stake in Ukraine’s future. He views it as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago.
Mr Zelenskiy was dismissed from the White House after being berated by Mr Trump and vice-president JD Vance, who said he should thank the US for its support rather than asking for additional aid for Ukraine’s war against Russian in front of the media.
“You’re gambling with World War Three,” Mr Trump told the Ukrainian leader.
The Kremlin said it welcomed Mr Zelenskiy’s statement that Kyiv is willing to negotiate, but it is not yet clear to Moscow who it might be negotiating with.
Asked how the Kremlin viewed the comments, spokesman Dmitry Peskov replied: “Positively.”
But he added: “The question is who to sit down with. For now, the Ukrainian president is still legally prohibited from negotiating with the Russian side. So, overall, the approach is positive, but the nuances have not changed yet.”
Mr Peskov was referring to a Zelenskiy decree in 2022 that ruled out negotiations with Russia’s Vladimir Putin.US officials have in recent days spoken to officials in Kyiv about signing the minerals deal despite Friday’s scenes, and urged Mr Zelenskiy’s advisers to convince the Ukrainian president to apologise openly to Mr Trump, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” Mr Zelenskiy said in his post on X. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”
It was unclear if the deal has changed. The version that was to be signed last week included no explicit security guarantees for Ukraine but gave the US access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources. It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50 per cent of future monetisation of any state-owned natural resources to a US-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund. – Reuters
