Donald Trump appears to have won his trade standoff with Volodymyr Zelensky, as the Ukrainian president is set to give in and sign a deal giving the U.S. access to deposits of critical minerals.
The deal was seen as crucial for satisfying Washington’s demands for a peace settlement between Ukraine and Russia to end their three-year long war.
It’s a staggering surrender from Zelensky, who had said just days earlier: ‘I defend Ukraine, I can’t sell our country.’
Zelensky said on Friday that officials from his country and the U.S. were working on concluding an economic deal to ensure that the accord worked and was fair to Kyiv.
‘We’re signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time,’ Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about a deal for Ukraine’s minerals.
The Wall Street Journal later cited several people familiar with the matter that the deal is close and will be signed within hours.
It comes after Zelensky angered Trump so much during negotiations that the president threatened to completely pull US funding from Ukraine, Axios reported.
Zelensky had apparently worn out his welcome with the entire American negotiating team – which included the president, JD Vance, Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz – in the span of a week.
Donald Trump appears to have won his trade standoff with Volodymyr Zelensky , as the Ukrainian president is set to give in and sign a deal giving the U.S. access to deposits of critical minerals
Zelensky said on Friday that officials from his country and the U.S. were working on concluding an economic deal to ensure that the accord worked and was fair to Kyiv
Trump accused Zelensky of being late to a meeting with Bessent and ‘rude’ when the head of the treasury made the first offer for the minerals on February 12.
He caused further anger in a meeting with Vance and Rubio in Munich, just two days later, saying he couldn’t approve a deal by himself.
On February 15, Zelensky publicly rejected the deal, calling it ‘not in the interests of a sovereign Ukraine.’
Zelensky became even more erratic just three days later, slamming talks he was not included in between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia which led Trump to claim his approval ratings were at 4 percent.
The war of words reached fever pitch on Wednesday when Trump took to social media to brand Zelensky a ‘dictator’.
Zelensky rejected proposals of what the Trump team called ‘an economic partnership’ and an ‘historic opportunity to have the United States of America co-invest with Ukraine, invest in its economy, invest in its natural resources.’
Ukraine claims to have Europe’s largest reserves of titanium – used to produce alloys for aircraft and naval vessels, and lithium, a commodity that is becoming increasingly valuable amid global demand for batteries – particularly in electric vehicles.
The war-torn country also has deposits of rare earth minerals that are essential in high-tech industries, including defense and clean energy.
The minerals are especially valuable to the US amid growing tensions with China, which controls vast portions of the global supply.
Zelensky furiously lashed out at the initial proposal, claiming that it was too vague and demanded a 50 percent share of Ukraine's mineral deposits.
He said that Trump was demanding $500 billion worth of the minerals - which was far beyond America's total contribution to the Ukraine war effort of $100 billion.
Now, the deal appears to have come together with the help of retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine whom the president criticized for being too pro-Zelensky earlier Friday, according to Politico.
Kellogg and Zelensky met Thursday in Kyiv, where the president said the envoy's work 'restores hope.'
'I gave instructions to work swiftly and very sensibly,' Zelensky said.
Kellogg played 'a big part' in getting the deal over the line through his flattery in the press of the Ukrainian president and spending three days with him in Kyiv, according to people close to the Ukrainian government.
Trump has famously said that the Russia-Ukraine war would never have started had he been president and claimed he could bring the conflict to an abrupt halt - without ever revealing his plans for doing so.
The president has been clear that Ukraine must remunerate the US for the aid provided to support the war effort thus far.
Trump suggested that Kyiv could begin to compensate the US for aid sent over the last three years with 'like $500 billion worth' of critical minerals.
The prospect of extracting Ukraine's natural resources has evidently been part of the Trump administration's plan from the outset.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the US President, embarked on a trip to Kyiv last autumn shortly before Zelensky unveiled is Victory Plan and suggested that Ukraine's mineral reserves could be put up for sale.
The deal appears to have come together with the help of retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Ukraine whom the president criticized for being too pro-Zelensky earlier Friday
Trump and his supporters have roundly criticised the scale of US military and financial support for Kyiv, and he previously labelled Zelensky 'the greatest salesman on Earth'
Graham and other lawmakers at the time released a statement in which they positioned Ukraine as a potential economic partner of the US that could reduce America's reliance on the likes of China for rare earth minerals.
Zelensky has said Kyiv could sign an agreement with the US, EU and other unnamed allies that would allow for joint investments and use of Ukraine's natural resources.
Ukraine has trillions of dollars worth of natural resources, including many rare earth minerals vital for the manufacture of modern technology - though many are found in the industrial heartlands in the east, currently occupied by Russia.
Mining analysts and economists say Ukraine currently has no commercially operational rare earth mines.
Many companies slowed or ceased operations at the start of the war, and restarting industry in a war-torn country will present a mammoth challenge for any companies willing to take the risk.
Zelensky refused to sign the deal as offered last week, telling reporters over the weekend: 'It was not in our interests today... not in the interests of sovereign Ukraine'.
Senior government sources told the Financial Times that the deal provided scant details of what this 'long-term security shield' would look like.
'When we looked at the details there was nothing there [about future US security guarantees],' one official said, while another told The Telegraph that a clause in the contract awarded the US 'a lien on revenues'.
This handout photograph taken and released by the Ukrainian State Emergency Service on February 21, 2025 shows firefighters working to push out a fire on an industrial facility after a Russian strike in the Poltava region, amid Russian invasion in Ukraine.
In other words, the official said, the contract meant 'pay us first, and then feed your children'.
Zelensky told reporters later Monday that any US-Ukraine economic treaty must see security guarantees 'included at least somehow', adding that his country was not just a 'simple supplier of raw materials'.
'Ukraine is blessed with significant lithium, titanium, and other rare earth minerals that are needed by the American economy.
'Expanding economic cooperation with Ukraine makes America stronger and accelerates Ukraine's economic recovery,' the statement read.
'An agreement with Ukraine in this area would make the US less dependent on foreign adversaries for rare earth minerals.'
Earlier this month, Zelensky also showed reporters the location of Ukraine's mineral deposits, unfurling a map on a table in the heavily defended president's office in Kyiv.
Around half of it looked to be on Russia's side of the current frontlines, but large amounts of vital resources were found in central Ukraine.
'If we are talking about a deal, then let's do a deal, we are only for it,' Zelensky said two weeks ago, emphasizing Ukraine's need for security guarantees from its allies as part of any settlement.
But Ukraine claimed the contract offered by Bessent was ruthless, seeking to exploit the country's vast resources for little in return.
According to the private draft seen by the Telegraph, the contract not only covered mineral resources, but the 'economic value associated with... oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)', leaving it unclear what else might be encompassed.
'This agreement shall be governed by New York law, without regard to conflict of laws principles,' it stated, going on to say that 'for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals'.
An analysis of the contract's terms by the Telegraph concluded that, if the terms of the draft dated February 7, 2025 draft were accepted by Ukraine, Trump's demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany following World War I.