The US President Donald Trump is pushing for a "bigger, better deal" with Ukraine on rare earth minerals.
CBS News reports this, citing a source familiar with the matter.
The publicationʼs sources note that the current version of the agreement is not final, and some of its parameters may change.
After Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a heated argument at the White House on February 28, the US officials continued to talk to the Ukrainian side about the deal. They urged Zelensky’s advisers to force the Ukrainian president to publicly apologize to Trump.
On the evening of March 4, Zelensky said that the meeting with Trump “did not go as planned” and that this must be corrected. Ukraine, according to Zelensky, is ready to sign an agreement on the use of Ukrainian minerals “at any time and in any convenient format”. He considers this a step towards strengthening security and reliable security guarantees.
Trump, in his address to Congress, stressed that he appreciated Kyivʼs willingness to conclude a mineral agreement. A few hours earlier, Reuters reported that the United States and Ukraine could soon sign a mineral agreement. The publication did not specify a specific date.
What preceded
On February 28, the leaders of Ukraine and the United States met at the White House to sign a mineral deal. But the meeting ended in a heated argument. Trump said Zelensky was not ready for peace, prompting the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House. The deal was never signed. The Trump administration has since called on Zelensky to apologize.
On March 4, Bloomberg, citing its own sources, wrote that the US President Donald Trump ordered the suspension of all military aid to Kyiv, including that already on the way. This is supposedly to put pressure on Volodymyr Zelenskyy after their dispute in the Oval Office of the White House. A few hours later, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk confirmed that the United States had stopped the delivery of military aid to Ukraine across the Polish border — this is evidenced by reports from the Polish-Ukrainian border and the Polish logistics hub in Rzeszów-Jasionka, which is used for supplies to Ukraine.
After receiving information about this, President Zelensky instructed to receive official information from the United States about the suspension of military aid to Ukraine.
Later, during an address to Congress, the US President Donald Trump said that he had not announced the suspension of military aid to Ukraine. According to him, he had received an “important letter” from Volodymyr Zelensky. He was referring to the letter to the Ukrainian president in which he stated that Ukraine was ready to sit down at the negotiating table as soon as possible.
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