U.S. officials are rushing to revive a mineral-resources deal with Ukraine, with the goal of President Donald Trump announcing an agreement as soon as his speech to Congress on Tuesday night, people familiar with the matter said.
The White House supports moving ahead with the agreement — a key U.S. demand in return for Washington’s continued support for Kyiv — after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took to social media Tuesday to express regret over a disastrous Oval Office meeting last week led Trump to walk away from the agreement for now.
The people cautioned that the situation is fluid and the window for that timing may be too tight. The most optimistic scenario among Republicans who see the deal as a crucial step for Ukraine would be for Trump to announce it during his prime-time address to both houses of Congress. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The possible rapprochement would mark a fresh reversal for Trump after a chaotic few days that fanned fears the U.S. support for Ukraine had reached a breaking point. Late Monday, Trump ordered a pause to all U.S. military aid to Ukraine, a move that alarmed allies. Indeed, any progress on the deal depends on buy-in from the famously mercurial leader.
But U.S. Vice President JD Vance and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz both signaled optimism about finalizing the U.S. — Ukraine agreement, which calls for 50% of its future resource revenues to go into a U.S.-managed investment fund, part of Trump’s pledge to recoup taxpayer money that helped Kyiv resist Moscow’s invasion.
“I think the president is still committed to the mineral deal,” Vance told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday. “The mineral deal is a really important part of the president’s policy.” As to the resumption of military aid, Vance said, “when the Ukrainians come to the negotiating table, everything is on the table.”
Waltz said in a Fox News interview Monday that “we are certainly looking to move forward in a positive way,” while House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday called the military aid halt “a temporary pause.” Senator Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who had criticized Zelenskyy after the Oval Office meeting, gave a thumbs-up to Zelenkyy’s social media post Tuesday and said “better days are ahead.”
The agreement, which doesn’t include any U.S. security guarantees against future Russian aggression, was originally intended to be signed last week. That plan unraveled spectacularly after Zelenskyy argued on camera with Trump and Vance during a meeting, leading Trump’s team to eventually kick Zelenskyy and his entourage out of the White House and call off the signing.
In his social media post Tuesday, Zelenskyy said that he’s ready to work speedily to end Russia’s war on Ukraine, stressing that his dramatic falling out with Trump over the path toward peace was “regrettable.”
“None of us wants an endless war,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”
Reuters reported earlier Tuesday that the U.S. and Ukraine plan to sign the deal and Trump told his advisers he wants to announce an agreement in his speech to Congress.
Trump’s weapons-pause order applies to all U.S. military equipment not currently in Ukraine, including weapons in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in transit areas in Poland.
The impact of the order was felt immediately along the Polish border with Ukraine at a key airport, which serves as a transit hub for the transport of weapons and medical supplies. European allies were blindsided by the move. Senior British officials were unaware of the plan late Monday, despite a series of phone calls between members of the U.K. and U.S. cabinet in recent days.
“This of course is putting Ukraine and Poland in a more difficult situation,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday. “But we have to cope with this situation. So there is no point in being offended by reality here.”
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer lauded Zelenskyy’s “steadfast commitment” to peace in a phone call Tuesday as he sought to reconnect the leaders. Starmer, who hosted the Ukrainian and fellow European leaders at the weekend and has been in regular contact with Trump, briefed Zelenskyy on discussions with Trump on Monday.
“It was vital that all parties worked towards a lasting and secure peace for Ukraine as soon as possible,” the prime minister’s office said in a statement.
European allies have been racing to come up with plans to keep Ukraine supplied with weapons, as well as to provide peacekeeping forces for a deal. Yet Europe lacks many of the arms and other capabilities that the U.S. now provides. Allied officials have said supplies of weapons are likely to last only until summer.
The European Union is meanwhile proposing extending €150 billion ($158 billion) in loans to boost defense spending, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in Brussels.
Zelenskyy in his post again hinted at the matter of security guarantees — an insistence that riled Trump and Vance, but which Ukraine sees as for a peace deal to be lasting.
“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format,” Zelenskyy said. “We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”
In his social media post Tuesday, Zelenskyy suggested the outlines of an initial ceasefire accord that would involve a prisoner release and truces on land and sea that would include a “ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure,” he said — “If Russia will do the same.”
Teams from Kyiv and Washington were working around the clock for almost two weeks on the resource deal. Zelenskyy’s team had initially rejected a draft agreement, which hands 50% of revenues from future resource extraction — including minerals, oil, gas as well as infrastructure tied to the resources — because it didn’t provide security guarantees.
The final text, seen by Bloomberg, still doesn’t entail such guarantees, but a “durable partnership” via economic ties. The U.S. dropped an initial demand for Kyiv to commit to paying $500 billion from resource extraction as a form of compensation for U.S. aid, one person said.
NATO allies have been stunned by Trump’s overtures to Moscow and sudden lurch away from Kyiv, including the U.S. president calling Zelenskyy a “dictator” and demanding elections as he adopted the Kremlin’s talking points that Ukraine hold a wartime vote.
Source: American Military News
