Ukraine has offered an olive branch to Donald Trump’s administration by suggesting it is close to signing a minerals deal with the US on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
The deputy prime minister of Ukraine said her country was in the “final stages” of thrashing out a deal – seen by Washington as repayment for military aid – as world leaders including Canada’s Justin Trudeau and EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen separately gathered in Kyiv to meet Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky.
As a UN resolution was passed condemning Vladimir Putin’s war – despite opposition from the US and North Korea – Mr Zelesnky said he hoped that the conflict could “finish this year”.
Mr Trump also talked up the possibility of a deal, telling reporters: “It looks like we’re getting very close.”
He also hinted that the Russian president may have dropped his opposition to European peacekeepers in Ukraine as part of a potential peace settlement. “Yeah, he will accept it,” Mr Trump said. “I have asked him that question. Look, if we do this deal, he’s not looking for world war.”
Mr Trump was speaking ahead of a meeting at the White House on Monday with Emmanuel Macron. At a later press conference hosted by the pair, Mr Macron spoke supportively Mr Trump brokering a deal with Putin, but said lasting peace in Ukraine needed American “backup”.
The French president will be followed in just a matter of days by Sir Keir Starmer. The prime minister has been in close touch with Mr Macron over the need to accelerate an increase in defence spending and to ensure the US remains part of any future security assistance to Ukraine as an essential “backstop”.
The apparent softening of Ukraine’s approach on minerals came as there was a clear effort among European leaders to show fulsome support for Mr Zelensky and Ukraine.
“Russia does not hold all the cards in this war,” Sir Keir said at the opening of the gathering of leaders in Kyiv aimed at boosting support for Ukraine.
The optimistic language on a deal with the US initially came from Olha Stefanishyna, who is responsible for Ukraine’s European and transatlantic relationships. She posted on X: “Ukrainian and US teams are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement.
“The negotiations have been very constructive, with nearly all key details finalised,” she said in a post that was taken down on social media for several hours before being reinstated.
The details of the draft offer reportedly guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty which had been an issue with earlier Trump proposals. These had said nothing about the future security for Ukraine but demanded it raise $500bn in payback for money spent by the US in defence of the country.
Mr Zelensky said on Sunday that he could not sign the Trump deal: “I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to pay back.”
Under Ukrainian law, any deal would need to be ratified by Ukraine’s parliament but the Ukrainian deputy PM said: “We hope that both US and UA [Ukraine] leaders might sign and endorse it in Washington the soonest to showcase our commitment for decades to come”.
Mr Zelensky’s rejection of the original deal presented in Kyiv by US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent led to Mr Trump dismissing the democratically elected president as a “dictator” which caused consternation among Ukraine’s allies in Europe.
On Sunday, Mr Bessent said the administration’s minerals plan was to create a US-Ukraine partnership, calling it a “win-win”.
Mr Zelensky has argued that the US grants to Ukraine were not debts that should be repaid. However, in establishing a commercial presence in Ukraine for the US, underpinned by a written agreement, he hopes to give Mr Trump an incentive to continue to support the fight against Russian forces on his territory.
So far, the US president has insisted that there would be no future membership of Nato for Ukraine and that Kyiv should give up hope of reclaiming all the territory it has lost to Russia, as part of a future peace agreement.
Russian military thrusts on the eastern front, especially around Pokrovsk and with the intent of taking control of Donetsk province entirely, have been largely held back.
Ukrainian military claims have been echoed by analysts at the Institute for the Study of War, which said that Russia’s latest attacks had meant it “paid an exorbitant price in manpower and equipment losses that Russia cannot sustain in the medium term for very limited gains”.
