Trump confirms: Zelensky at the White House to sign agreement on natural resources and reconstruction of Ukraine
US President Donald Trump has confirmed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit the White House on Friday to sign an agreement on natural resources and the reconstruction of war-ravaged Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, on Friday in Washington to finalize an agreement on mineral exploitation and the reconstruction of Ukraine.
"We're doing very well with Russia and Ukraine. President Zelensky is coming on Friday. It's confirmed and we're going to sign a deal," Trump said, thanking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
"We've been able to come to an agreement where we're going to get our money back and we're going to get a lot of money in the future, and I think that's appropriate," he said.
Trump said his administration is pleased with the deal, which could grant the United States access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals as part of broader negotiations to end Russia's invasion, as well as U.S. participation in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine.
Trump says he won't give many more security guarantees to Ukraine
Trump said Wednesday he would not provide many more security guarantees to Ukraine, suggesting that European nations take on that responsibility because of geographic proximity.
"I'm not going to give a lot more security assurances. We're going to force Europe to do it, because it's, you know, we're talking about Europe being their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure that everything goes right. And as you know, we're going to really partner with Ukraine, in terms of rare earths. We need rare earths very badly. They have excellent rare earths," Trump said at his first cabinet meeting.
The president said his Interior Secretary, Doug Burgum, and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, "will work together on that."
"The deal we're making is good for us, it brings us great wealth. We'll get back the money we spent and hopefully we can get this resolved," Trump said.