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President Donald Trump will host Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday to sign what he called "a very big deal" on sharing revenues from Ukraine's rare earth mineral deposits.
"Now it's confirmed and we're going to sign a deal," Trump said, at the start of his first cabinet meeting at the White House.
The meeting is likely to take place at the White House, according to a person familiar with the plans, and not at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, where the president is scheduled to travel Friday evening.
Trump went on to present the deal, the details of which remain unknown, as a way for the US to recoup some of the aid sent to Ukraine during the three-year war.
The US has sent Ukraine $120 billion so far. Trump has inflated the amount, again falsely claiming that American taxpayers were waiting for "$350 billion" in aid.
"We were able to make a deal that guarantees we'll get our money back," Trump said.
Zelensky, speaking to reporters in Kiev, called the agreement "a start," warning that much would depend on his talks with Trump and the need for additional security guarantees.
"I will understand everything after I talk to Trump. For me, the most important thing is to find out whether the US will stop military aid or not," he said, adding, "if it stops, will we be able to buy weapons directly from the US, perhaps using frozen Russian assets?"
The mineral deal with Ukraine would not end the war. Trump this week said Europe would be largely responsible for Ukraine's military support, even though French President Emmanuel Macron reminded him during a visit to the White House on Monday that the strongest possible security guarantee requires U.S. support.
Asked what security guarantees the US would offer, Trump said "I'm not going to give a lot of security guarantees, because we're going to force Europe to do that."
But he suggested that an American presence in Ukraine constituted "automatic security," "because no one will mess with our people."
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