Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump met Friday to sign a deal on sharing Ukraine鈥檚 mineral riches and discuss a peace deal with Russia, despite the US president recently branding his Ukrainian counterpart a dictator.
The potentially tense meeting comes after a week-long diplomatic dance that has also seen the leaders of France and Britain come to the White House to persuade Trump not to abandon Kyiv.
Trump alarmed US allies and upended Washington鈥檚 longstanding Ukraine policy two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian president Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war鈥攚ithout Kyiv鈥檚 involvement.
The US leader has demanded a deal granting Washington preferential access to Ukraine鈥檚 rare-earth and other natural resources as the price for any continued backing鈥攅ven though he has refused to commit to giving Kyiv security guarantees as part of a truce with Russia.
鈥榃e鈥檒l be dig, dig, digging鈥� for Ukraine鈥檚 resources,鈥� Trump said on Thursday ahead of the meeting鈥攅choing his presidential election campaign slogan about how the United States would 鈥榙rill, baby, drill鈥� for oil.
But Trump has softened his tone on Zelensky in recent days, after berating him last week as a 鈥榙ictator without elections鈥�, blaming Ukraine for Russia鈥檚 February 2022 invasion and echoing a series of Kremlin talking points about the war.
鈥業 have a lot of respect for him,鈥� Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday at a joint press conference with British prime minister Keir Starmer. 鈥榃e鈥檙e going to get along really well.鈥�
Trump also backtracked on the 鈥榙ictator鈥� broadside he launched on social media at Zelensky last week鈥攁 jibe he had previously refused to retract even as he declined to call Putin a dictator too.
鈥楧id I say that? I can鈥檛 believe I said that. Next question,鈥� Trump responded when asked about the Zelensky comment.
Trump, a billionaire real estate tycoon, insists the minerals deal is necessary for Washington to recoup the billions of dollars it has given Ukraine in military and other aid.
Few details have emerged of exactly what it will involve, beyond giving Washington special access to Ukraine鈥檚 deep reserves of oil, gas and critical rare-earth minerals used in tech products.
Zelensky said ahead of his arrival in Washington that US and Ukrainian officials would determine the nature of security guarantees for Ukraine and the exact sums of money at stake in the accord, he said.
But Trump鈥攚ho said this week he trusts Putin to 鈥榢eep his word鈥� on any ceasefire and has repeatedly expressed admiration for the authoritarian Russian leader in the past鈥攈as refused to commit on security.
Britain and France have both offered peacekeepers in the event of a deal to end the Ukraine war but say there must be a US 鈥榖ackstop鈥欌�攊ncluding American intelligence and possibly air power.
The US president told Starmer Thursday he was 鈥榦pen to many things鈥� in terms of security guarantees but that he wanted to get a Russia-Ukraine deal in place first.
Putin and Trump said after their February 12 phone call that they had agreed to meet personally鈥攂ut they have not finalized any meeting yet.
US and Russian officials met on Thursday in Istanbul in a new round of talks, after which Russia named career diplomat Alexander Darchiev as new ambassador to the United States, filling a role vacant since last year.
But as tensions between Moscow and Washington eased, Russia鈥檚 assault on Ukraine continued.
Russian infantry was on Friday storming the Ukrainian border from the Russian region of Kursk, near areas of the region that were seized last summer by Ukrainian forces, Kyiv said Friday.
