Ukraine Ready To Sign Minerals Deal, Says Zelensky

Ukraine is ready to sign a minerals deal with the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told UK media on Sunday.

The deal, which was supposed to be a step towards helping to end the conflict in Ukraine, fell through on Friday after a televised Oval Office clash with US President Donald Trump.

“It is our policy to continue what happened in the past, we’re constructive,” Zelensky said, quoted by the BBC.

“If we agreed to sign the minerals deal, we’re ready to sign it.”

But in their Oval Office meeting, Trump berated Zelensky, telling him to be more “thankful” for US support in the three-year war and that without US assistance Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia.

The US leader had previously said the proposed minerals deal would be “very fair”.

The proposal was to give Washington financial benefits for helping Ukraine in a truce, even if Trump has repeatedly refused to commit any US military force as a back-up to European troops who might act as peacekeepers.

After the heated exchange, Zelensky drove off in his motorcade shortly after having been asked to leave, without holding a planned joint press conference. The resources deal was left unsigned, the White House said.

French President Emmanuel Macron, flying back from the London summit, said in a newspaper interview that France and Britain wanted to propose a partial one-month truce with Russia.

AFP