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Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky plans to travel to Washington to meet Donald Trump on Friday
Ukraine has agreed a crucial minerals deal with the US after the Trump administration dropped key demands.
Kyiv hopes the deal – which will see a fund established between the two countries as they jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources, according to the Financial Times – will boost its faltering relationship with Washington.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky plans to visit Washington on Friday to meet Mr Trump after the terms were agreed, according to Reuters.
The US dropped Donald Trump’s demand for $500 billion in potential revenue from Ukrainian resources, a condition which was rejected out-of-hand by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Included in the deal was a US commitment to back Ukraine’s economic development into the future. Deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna told the FT: “The minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it’s part of a bigger picture.”
But the deal, which Ukrainian officials made clear was only preliminary and does not yet involve any handover of funds, will not include the US security guarantees keenly sought after by Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Sir Keir Starmer earlier announced a boost in UK defence spending to 2.5 per cent, funded by a cut to the foreign aid budget.
Follow updates from the frontline in Ukraine below:
Sir Keir Starmer has bowed to pressure from Donald Trump to boost defence spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by slashing foreign aid.
The announcement came just 24 hours before the prime minister flies to Washington DC for his first meeting with the US president since the inauguration last month.
It comes at a time when the White House is piling pressure on European allies in Nato to massively increase their own share of the cost of defence as Mr Trump appears to be on the verge of turning his back on Ukraine.
The announcement to a stunned parliament has been condemned by senior Labour figures, including former foreign secretary David Miliband and aid charities, who have accused Sir Keir of “abandoning the poorest in the world”.
David Maddox and Kate Devlin report:
World affairs editor Sam Kiley reports:
Policies can drift and diplomacy meander. As great powers try to resolve wars and conflicts, obfuscation and sleight of hand are inevitable and sometimes essential. But when a great power changes sides in the halls of the United Nations, it’s not a play – but a betrayal of their allies.
On Monday, the United States abandoned the United Kingdom, France and the whole of the European Union to vote alongside Russia, North Korea and Israel at the UN’s General Assembly.
The conclusion is that, under the presidency of Donald Trump, the US cannot be considered an ally of other Western democracies and must now be treated as a potential foe.
In the world of espionage, he has been seen as a liability since he was last elected president in 2016.
World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
Last year, according to sources, the UK put considerable effort into trying to figure out Trump’s diet and to predict when his blood sugar was low because it was believed he could be most aggressive and anti-Ukraine when hungry.
Diplomats and ministers were carefully guided to try to engage him to think positively about Ukraine in these low-sugar moments.
Similarly Trump is widely seen as easy to offend, quick to fire off insults, but deeply susceptible to the need to feel that he has “won” at least part of any argument.
So while Zelensky has so far rejected the mineral deal and refused to cede rights to profits that would flow to the US for many generations, his deputy prime minister and other officials have been signalling that at least some kind of deal may be imminent.
Three years on from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, deadly attacks and drone strikes continue on a daily basis.
More than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed since the beginning of the war, according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, and tens of thousands more injured.
A recent US diplomatic blitz on the war has sent Kyiv and key allies scrambling to ensure a seat at the table amid concerns that Washington and Moscow could press ahead with a deal that won’t be favourable to them.
With Ukraine left on the outside looking in, the war-torn country’s citizens continue to deal with the reality of a war that is very much still ongoing.
Jabed Ahmed provides the latest frontline updates:
US president Donald Trump previously demanded half the revenue from Ukraine’s minerals and veto rights over licencing in return for providing security guarantees in the event of a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, according to a report of leaked documents.
He also wanted $500 billion of profits made from the Ukraine’s mineral resources – a demand which has reportedly been dropped in the deal.
Trump previously said he wants Ukraine to pay for financial and military support by affording Washington access to the country’s vast but untapped rare earth minerals.
However, documents which emerged last week show a deal between the two countries could expand US access to Ukraine’s ports, infrastructure, oil and gas.
World affairs editor Sam Kiley writes:
It appeared to have been an act of silliness. A deputy Ukrainian prime minister getting ahead of herself by tweeting, and then untweeting, the dramatic news that her country was about to sign a gigantic minerals deal with the Trump administration.
Rather than a blunder, it may have been a masterful moment in what some officials are calling “toddler management”.
There is a rapidly evolving pan-European effort to gently massage Donald Trump’s ego as talks between Europe, US Ukraine and Russia reach a crucial stage.
Kyiv and Washington appear to have struck a deal for Ukraine’s mineral resources.
It comes a day after Olha Stefanishyna said that Ukraine was committed to a deal that has previously been reported to give the US a staggering stake in the profits from Ukraine’s minerals.
Ukraine is sitting on one of Europe’s largest deposits of critical minerals, including lithium and titanium, much of which is untapped.
According to the Institute of Geology, Ukraine possesses rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting; neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium, whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers.
The EU-funded research also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves but detailed data is classified.
Mr Zelensky has been trying to develop these resources, estimated to be worth more than £12 trillion, based on figures provided by Forbes Ukraine, for years.
Donald Trump would like the world to know he’s a man about big deals and big ideas.
Last week he announced he was negotiating an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine – but without involving Ukraine in the deliberations. He then labelled the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky a “dictator” for good measure.
This week he hosted a bromance press conference with President Emmanuel Macron of France. Hours later, the US sided with Russia, China and North Korea in the UN.
It has been as unpredictable as ever, but one thing has remained constant – and that is Trump’s desire to get US hands on Ukraine’s very valuable mineral resources as a way to recoup “hundreds of billions of dollars of American taxpayers’ money” spent supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Alex Hannaford writes:
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Zelensky strikes minerals deal with Trump to secure US support – The Independent
