The United States and Ukraine are planning to sign a mineral agreement, according to four informed sources cited by Reuters on Tuesday, March 4th.
Last Friday, President Trump and President Zelensky of Ukraine had a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office at the White House, causing the planned signing of the mineral agreement to collapse.
Three sources revealed that Trump has informed his advisors that he hopes to announce this agreement during a speech to Congress on Tuesday night, but they also cautioned that the agreement has not been signed yet, and the situation could still change.
The White House has not immediately responded to requests for comment. The Ukrainian President’s office and the Ukrainian Embassy in the United States also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The agreement was originally scheduled to be signed last Friday but was put on hold due to the controversial meeting between Trump and Zelensky in the Oval Office, which ultimately led to Zelensky quickly leaving the White House. One of Zelensky’s main purposes for visiting Washington this time was to sign the agreement.
According to one source, in the past few days, officials from both sides have been in communication, discussing whether it would still be possible to sign the mineral agreement, and urging Zelensky’s advisors to convince the Ukrainian President to publicly apologize to Trump.
On Tuesday, Zelensky posted on social media X, stating that Ukraine is ready to sign the agreement and calling the Oval Office meeting “regrettable.”
“Our meeting last Friday at the White House in Washington did not go as expected,” Zelensky wrote in the post. “Ukraine is ready to return to the negotiating table at any time and push for the achievement of lasting peace.”
It is currently unclear whether there have been any changes to the content of the agreement. According to the agreement originally scheduled to be signed last week, it did not include explicit security guarantees for Ukraine but allowed the United States to benefit from Ukraine’s natural resources. Additionally, the agreement stipulated that 50% of the income Ukraine’s government would derive from natural resource developments in the future would be allocated to a reconstruction investment fund jointly managed by the U.S. and Ukraine.
On Monday, Trump stated at a press conference that his administration is still willing to sign the agreement and said that Ukraine “should be more grateful.”
“This country (referring to the United States) has steadfastly supported them,” Trump said. “We have given Ukraine more support than Europe, and Europe should be providing more help than us.”
(Partial reference from Reuters)