A senior civil servant of the White House reportedly criticized Ukrainian President VolodyMyr Zenskyy’s decision to not sign the United States to give access to the rare earth minerals of Ukraine.
“President Zenskyy is short-sighted about the excellent opportunity that the Trump government has presented to Ukraine, “spokesperson Brian Hughes of the White House National Security Council told The Associated Press.
Hughes said that a mineral deal would enable American taxpayers to “earn back” some of the billions in American aid who was sent to Kiev during the Biden administration, while the Ukrainian economy grows. The White House believes that “binding economic ties with the United States will be the best guarantee to future aggression and an integral part of permanent peace,” said the spokesperson for the National Security Council, adding: “The US acknowledges this, the Russians recognize this This and the Ukrainians must recognize this. “
Hughes did not explicitly confirm the proposal, the AP reported that it was an important part of the Zenskyy conversations with American Vice President JD Vance On the sidelines of the Munich Safety Conference on Friday.
Vice-president JD Vance, second right, and State Secretary Marco Rubio, Third Right, meet Ukrainian President Volodyyr Zenskyy, third left, meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, February 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)
A current and a former Senior Ukrainian officer who was familiar with the conversations, the AP told that the offer did not contain specific security guarantees in exchange for rare earthmineral access.
The proposal was aimed at how the US could use Kyiv’s rare earth minerals “as compensation” for support that was already given to Ukraine by the BIDEN administration and as a payment for future help, the current and former senior Ukrainian officials said anonymously to the AP. Zenskyy said he has assigned his ministers so as not to sign the proposed agreement because the document was too focused on American interests.
“I did not let the ministers sign a relevant agreement, because in my opinion it is not ready to protect us, our interest,” Zenskyy said the AP on Saturday in Munich.
Ukraine has enormous reserves of critical minerals used in the space, defense and nuclear industry. The Trump administration has indicated that it is interested in access to them to reduce Dependence on China.
Zenskyy reportedly said that he thought it was “very important” the relationship between a kind of security guarantees and a kind of investment “to scare off Another Russian invasion.
The document is said to be given to the Ukrainian officials given on Wednesday by the US Finance Minister Scott Bessent during a visit to Kyiv.
“It is a colonial agreement and Zenskyy cannot sign it,” the former Ukrainian high official told the AP.
The Ukrainian President VolodyMyr Zensky and the American secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent give a press conference during their meeting in Kiev in Kiev on 12 February 2025. (Tetiana Dzhafaova/AFP via Getty images)
American National Security Advisor Michael Waltz On Sunday, the idea that European allies were not consulted about negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, because the Trump government is said to start this week with Russian counterparts in Saudi -Arabia. In turn, French President Emmanuel Macron said that he would convene an emergency meeting between the most important European powers in Paris on Monday to discuss the conflict of Russia-Ukraine.
Walz told “Fox News Sunday” that VANCE, Bessent and State Secretary Marco Rubio emphasized in conversations with Zenskyy, the importance of “entering into a partnership with the United States” and “are being invested together with President Trump, with the American people, with the American people, with the American people in the future. ”
“The American people deserve to be displayed back, it deserves to have a kind of payback time for the billions they invested in this war,” said Waltz. “I can’t think of anything that the American people would make more comfortable in the future European help Is actually in the form of a loan. That will be reimbursed. It is repaid with interest in Russian assets. So President Trump reconsider the entire dynamic here. Some people have that uncomfortable, but I think Zenskyy would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States. There is no better way to secure them in the future, and there was a question whether Putin would come to the table. He has now done this under the leadership of President Trump, and we will continue those conversations in the coming weeks in the direction of President Trump. “
American officials in discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in Munich were commercially minded and largely concentrated on the details of exploring the minerals and how they can form a possible partnership to do that with Ukraine, the high official said. The potential value of the deposits in Ukraine has not yet been discussed, with a lot of unexplored or close to the front line. The American proposal apparently did not take into account how the deposits would be protected if the war would continue.
Treasury Secretary Bessent offers Zenskyy an economic investment agreement
Zenskyy and Vance did not discuss the details of the American document during their meeting on Friday at the Munich conference, the high official said.
That meeting was “very good” and “substantive”, where VANCE made it clear to the main goal of his and Trump, was to achieve a sustainable, sustainable peace, the high official said. Zenskyy told Vance that real peace requires that Ukraine is in a “strong position” in starting negotiations, and emphasizes that American negotiators should come to Ukraine and that the US, Ukraine and Europe should be at the negotiating table for conversations with Russia.
Gene. Keith Kellogg, the special envoy of Trump for Ukraine and Russia, has all removed Europeans from all conversations in Ukraine Russia, despite the request from Zenskyy.
The Ukrainian President VolodyMyr Zensky speaks during the 61st Security Conference Conference on 15 February 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)
“You can talk to the Ukrainians, the Russians and clearly the Americans at the table,” said Kellogg organized during an event by a Ukrainian tycoon at the Munich conference. Under pressure or that meant that Europeans will not be admitted, he said, “I am a school of realism. I think that will not happen.”
Ukraine is now preparing a “contraproposal” for that will be delivered to the US in “the near future”, the official said.
“I think it is important that the vice president understood me that if we want to sign something, we must understand that it will work,” Zenskyy told the AP.
That means he said, “it will bring money and security.”
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The Associated Press has contributed to this report.
