Ukraine official says minerals deal agreed with US
Ukraine has agreed the terms of a major minerals deal with the US, a senior official in Kyiv has told the
We have indeed agreed it with a number of good amendments and see it as a positive outcome," the official said, without providing any further details.Media reports say Washington has dropped initial demands for a right to $500bn (£395bn) in potential revenue from utilising the natural resources but has not given firm security guarantees to war-torn Ukraine - a key Ukrainian demand.
US President Donald Trump said he was expecting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal this week, after the two leaders exchanged strong words about each other Without confirming that an agreement had been reached, Trump said on Tuesday that in return for the deal Ukraine would get "the right to fight on".
"They're very brave," he told reporters, but "without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time".Asked whether supplies of US equipment and ammunition to Ukraine would continue, he said: "Maybe until we have a deal with Russia... We need to have a deal, otherwise it's going to continue."Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told the Financial Times - which first reported the minerals deal on Tuesday - that the deal was "only part of the picture"."We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it's part of a bigger picture," said Stefanishyna, who has led the negotiations.
According to Ukrainian sources, the US has had to back away from some of its more onerous demands from the war-torn nation and many of the details of this agreement Ukraine and its European allies have become increasingly alarmed over a recent thaw in US-Russian ties, including their bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia last week.
There is concern in Kyiv and across Europe that they might be excluded from any negotiations aimed at ending the war, and that the continent's future security as
