The US President Donald Trump convened his first meeting of the US Cabinet on February 26. During the press conference, he spoke about security guarantees for Ukraine, the countryʼs accession to NATO, and Washingtonʼs relations with Russia. Babel has compiled the main statements.
Zelenskyʼs visit to the USA
Volodymyr Zelensky will arrive in the United States on February 28. The leaders are expected to meet to sign a rare earths deal. According to the US leader, this means "automatic security" because it guarantees the American presence in Ukraine.
"Itʼs going to be a very big deal on rare earths and other things. Everythingʼs already been agreed upon. Weʼre happy with that. Weʼre also going to make a deal with Russia and Ukraine to stop the killing of people," Trump said.
Later, Zelensky also confirmed the upcoming visit.
Security guarantees for Ukraine
Washington is not going to provide Ukraine with "too many" security guarantees. Trump is convinced that Europe should provide support to Kyiv. This is in the interests of the region, because European countries are Ukraineʼs neighbours.
"But we will make efforts to ensure that everything goes as it should. We will remain partners with Ukraine, we need rare earth metals, and they have a lot of them," he says.
Ukraineʼs membership in the Alliance
Ukraine "should forget about NATO membership". According to the American leader, this is the reason for the start of the war with Russia. Putin will also be forced to make concessions for the sake of establishing peace.
"Yes, he will [make concessions]. He will have to. I believe that because we were elected, the war will end. And I also believe that if this administration had not won the election by a large margin, the war would have gone on for a long time, and he would have wanted to take all of this for himself," Trump said.
At the same time, he refused to specify what exactly the Russian leader would concede.
Relations with the Russian Federation
The US will try to raise the issue of returning part of the occupied territories to Ukraine, but "itʼs difficult to achieve this". Trump says that negotiations with Moscow are going "very well". He intends to build "great" relations with Russia and China.
Tariffs against the EU
The American president will impose 25% tariffs on European Union countries, not just on cars, but on “everything else”. He believes the European Union was created to “fool the US”.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.