Trump made the announcement at the start of the first Cabinet meeting of his second term, hailing the deal as “a very big agreement.”
The Republican president has long complained that the United States has spent too much taxpayer money to support Ukraine in the war with Russia that began when the Kremlin invaded three years ago. Trump has framed the emerging deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine's deposits of so-called rare earth minerals — used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries — as a chance for Kyiv to pay back the U.S. for aid already sent for the war effort under Democratic President Joe Biden.
“The previous administration put us in a very bad position, but we’ve been able to make a deal where we’re going to get the money back and and a lot of money in the future,” Trump said.
Zelenskyy said a news conference early Wednesday in Kyiv that a framework of an economic deal had been reached, but that it did not yet include U.S. security guarantees, which his country sees as vital.
Ukraine needs to know first where the U.S. stands on its continued military support, Zelenskyy said. He said he expected a wide-ranging conversation with Trump.
The economic agreement "may be part of future security guarantees, but I want to understand the broader vision. What awaits Ukraine?” Zelensky said.
But Trump, in announcing the meeting, was noncommittal about any coming American security guarantees.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees ... very much,” Trump said. "We're going to have Europe do that."
He said a U.S. presence working on mineral extraction would amount to "automatic security because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there."
“It’s a great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there and we’re going to be working over there,” Trump said. “We will be on the land.”
