President Volodymyr Zelensky said his purported trip to Washington to finalize a mineral agreement with the US had not been certain.
Speaking to reporters at a Wednesday press conference, Zelensky said the details of the visit are not confirmed when asked about recent reports of his planned visit.
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“Regarding the visit. We were offered a visit, yes. But I want to know what format and when. The offices are working on it. There is a working date. What the US president said about Friday. I have an important question. I really want a visit,” Zelensky said, according to RBC Ukraine.
Zelensky added that he planned to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London after Washington if the trip is confirmed. Starmer is set to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday.
On Tuesday evening, Ukrainian officials confirmed that Kyiv is ready to sign an agreement with the US on developing its mineral resources – including oil and gas – after Washington dropped demands for the right to $500 billion in potential revenue from exploiting Ukraine’s resources.
AFP, citing unnamed Ukrainian officials, reported that Zelensky could make the trip as early as Friday. Trump hinted that he was aware of such reports at a press conference on Tuesday in the Oval Office.
“I hear that he’s coming on Friday. Certainly, it’s ok with me if he’d like to [come] and he’d like to sign [the resources deal] together. I understand that’s a big deal, very big,” Trump said.
Putin Reiterates Old Demands, With Some Nuances
Regarding the mineral deal, Zelensky said on Wednesday that the $500 billion demanded initially was “unfair.”
“The key thing for me was that we are not debtors. There is no $500 billion debt in the minerals agreement with the US – nor $350 billion, nor $100 billion. That would be unfair to us,” Zelensky added.
“I won’t agree to even a 10% debt repayment in this deal with the US,” he added.
A copy of the revised agreement, obtained by European Pravda, makes no mention of the monetary value to be extracted from Ukraine’s mineral resources under the agreement.
However, it stipulates that “50% of all revenues generated from the future monetization of all relevant natural resource assets” would go towards a joint US-Ukraine fund, though the amount “[does] not include current sources of revenue that are already part of the general revenues of the budget of Ukraine.”
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