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White House rips Zelenskyy’s ‘short-sighted’ refusal to sign US minerals deal

A senior White House official reportedly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision not to sign a proposed agreement to give the United States access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.

“President Zelenskyy is being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump administration has presented to Ukraine,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told the Associated Press.

Hughes said a minerals deal would allow American taxpayers to “recoup” some of the billions in U.S. aid sent to Kyiv during the Biden administration, while growing Ukraine’s economy. The White House believes “binding economic ties with the United States will be the best guarantee against future aggression and an integral part of lasting peace,” the National Security Council spokesman said, adding: “The U.S. recognizes this, the Russians recognize this, and the Ukrainians must recognize this.”

Hughes did not explicitly confirm the proposal, which the AP reported was a key part of Zelenskyy’s talks with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR SAYS PUTIN, ZELENSKYY AGREE ‘ONLY PRESIDENT TRUMP COULD GET THEM TO THE TABLE’

Vice-President JD Vance, second right, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, third right, meet with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, third left, meeting on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

One current and one former senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks told the AP that the offer did not include any specific security guarantees in return for rare earth mineral access.

The proposal focused on how the U.S. could use Kyiv’s rare earth minerals “as compensation” for support already given to Ukraine by the Biden administration and as payment for future aid, the current and former senior Ukrainian officials said, speaking anonymously to the AP. Zelenskyy said he directed his ministers not to sign off on the proposed agreement because the document was too focused on U.S. interests.

“I didn’t let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because in my view it is not ready to protect us, our interest,” Zelenskyy told the AP on Saturday in Munich.

Ukraine has vast reserves of critical minerals that are used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. The Trump administration has indicated it is interested in accessing them to reduce dependence on China.

Zelenskyy reportedly said he considered it “very important the connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment” in order to deter another Russian invasion.

The document was reportedly given to Ukrainian officials on Wednesday by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on a visit to Kyiv.

“It’s a colonial agreement and Zelenskyy cannot sign it,” the former Ukrainian senior official told the AP.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent give a press conference during their meeting in Kyiv on Feb. 12, 2025. (TETIANA DZHAFAROVA/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. National Security Advisor Michael Waltz on Sunday rejected the notion that European allies are not being consulted on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, as the Trump administration is reportedly to begin talks with Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia this week. In turn, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would convene an emergency meeting between the main European powers in Paris on Monday to discuss the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Walz told “Fox News Sunday” that Vance, Bessent and Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed in talks with Zelenskyy the importance of “entering into a partnership with the United States,” and being “co-invested with President Trump, with the American people going forward.”

“The American people deserve to be recouped, deserve to have some type of payback for the billions they have invested in this war,” Waltz said. “I can’t think of anything that would make the American people more comfortable with future investments than if we were able to be in a partnership and have the American people made whole. And I’ll point out that much of the European aid is actually in the form of a loan. That is repaid. It’s repaid with interest on Russian assets. So President Trump is rethinking the entire dynamic here. That has some people uncomfortable, but I think Zelenskyy would be very wise to enter into this agreement with the United States. There’s no better way to secure them going forward, and further, there was a question of whether Putin would come to the table. He has now done so under President Trump’s leadership, and we’re going to continue those talks in the coming weeks at President Trump’s direction.”

U.S. officials in discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in Munich were commercially minded and largely concentrated on the specifics of exploring the minerals and how to form a possible partnership to do that with Ukraine, the senior official said. The potential value of the deposits in Ukraine has not yet been discussed, with much unexplored or close to the front line. The U.S. proposal apparently did not take into account how the deposits would be secured if the war continued.

TREASURY SECRETARY BESSENT OFFERS ZELENSKYY AN ECONOMIC INVESTMENT DEAL

Zelenskyy and Vance did not discuss the details of the U.S. document during their meeting Friday at the Munich conference, the senior official said.

That meeting was “very good” and “substantive,” with Vance making it clear his and Trump’s main goal was to achieve a durable, lasting peace, the senior official said. Zelenskyy told Vance that real peace requires Ukraine to be in a “strong position” when starting negotiations, stressing that the U.S. negotiators should come to Ukraine, and that the U.S., Ukraine and Europe must be at the negotiating table for talks with Russia.

Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, all but cut Europeans out of any Ukraine-Russia talks, despite Zelenskyy’s request.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks during the 61st Munich Security Conference on Feb. 15, 2025, in Munich, Germany. (Johannes Simon/Getty Images)

“You can have the Ukrainians, the Russians, and clearly the Americans at the table talking,” Kellogg said at an event hosted by a Ukrainian tycoon at the Munich conference. Pressed on whether that meant Europeans won’t be included, he said: “I’m a school of realism. I think that’s not going to happen.”

Ukraine is now preparing a “counterproposal” which will be delivered to the U.S. in “the near future,” the official said.

“I think it’s important that the vice president understood me that if we want to sign something, we have to understand that it will work,” Zelenskyy told the AP.

That means, he said, “it will bring money and security.”

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The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on X: @danimwallace.

February 17, 2025
Zelenskyy ready ‘to do a deal’ with Trump on raw earth minerals and military assistance

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet with Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference later this week after confirming on Friday he is ready to “do a deal” with President Donald Trump.

According to an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was ready to supply the U.S. with rare-earth minerals in exchange for Washington’s continued backing of its war effort.

“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskyy said.

ZELENSKYY WANTS NUKES OR NATO; TRUMP SPECIAL ENVOY KELLOGG SAYS ‘SLIM AND NONE’ CHANCE

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is ready to “do a deal” with President Trump about Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals in exchange for continued financial support. (AP Photo/Laurent Cipriani)

The Ukrainian president has made clear he is also open to engaging in peace talks with Russia to end the three-year-long war, though possible terms for securing a peace deal remain varied and unknown.

Though Zelenskyy has said he is looking for “guarantees” when it comes to future security assurances for the war-torn country.

These security assurances will likely need to be more than a formal handshake paired with a signed document, as Russia has twice violated its last agreement with Ukraine, known as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum.

The deal saw Kyiv hand over its nuclear arsenal to Moscow for dismantlement in exchange for sovereignty and independence guarantees from Russia, the U.S. and the U.K. However, the agreement did not stop Russia from invading Ukraine twice under Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskyy apparently first floated the idea of trading Ukraine’s mineral resources – roughly 20% of which are located in now Russian controlled territory, including half of the rare-earth variety – under his “victory plan” first presented to Western allies last fall, reported Reuters.

Rare-earth materials are used in the production of consumer electronics and electric engines. Zelenskyy has warned that Russia could give these resources to its allies like North Korea and Iran – the latter of which the U.S. just last week began to even more heavily sanction.

TRUMP’S FOURTH WEEK IN OFFICE COULD INCLUDE MEETING WITH ZELENSKYY, IRONING OUT STEEL DEAL

Former President Donald Trump meets with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have – a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” Zelenskyy reportedly said.

While Trump will not attend the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy will lead the Ukrainian delegation there and is reportedly expected to meet with Vance and special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg.

Trump told reporters last week that Zelenskyy may travel to D.C. in the week following the security conference, which runs Feb. 14-16, at which time both presidents will once again meet to discuss the war.

“I’d like to see that war end,” Trump told reporters last week. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.”

Russia’s war effort in eastern Ukraine continues to rage, and Moscow on Friday claimed it had captured the mining town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region despite Ukraine’s months-long attempts to stop Russian advances.

TRUMP PLANS TO MEET WITH ZELENSKYY AS HE LOOKS TO END UKRAINE WAR

The ruins of the city of Toretsk are in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Dec. 19, 2024. Russia, on Feb. 7, 2025, claimed to have finally seized the mining city. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Moscow continues to see incremental gains in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv is also pushing forward with its own attempts to seize Russian territory, which security experts have told Fox News Digital could be an attempt to give it better bargaining leverage come the time for ceasefire talks with Moscow.

Zelenskyy also said on Friday that Ukraine had opened a new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv first began its incursion in August 2024.

“In the areas of the Kursk operation, new assaults have taken place,” Zelenskyy said during his nightly address. “Russia has once again deployed North Korean soldiers alongside its troops.”

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Ukrainian forces fight in the Kursk region in Malaya Loknya, Russia, in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on Aug. 20, 2024. (Air Assault Brigade/Handout via Reuters)

It is unclear if North Korea has sent more troops to Russia after its initial deployment of as many as 12,000 men last October, though South Korean intelligence has warned Pyongyang is planning to do so.

Zelenskyy Sunday night said Ukrainian troops in Kursk “demonstrate highly effective enemy destruction,” though he did not detail any casualty rates among Russian or North Korean troops.

“We must hold all our positions firmly,” he said. “The stronger we stand on the front lines, the stronger our diplomacy – our work with partners – will be.”

Caitlin McFall is a Reporter at Fox News Digital covering Politics, U.S. and World news.

February 10, 2025
Zelenskyy open to Trump’s trade proposal of rare earth minerals for military aid

President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine begin offering critical minerals to the U.S. in exchange for military aid, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemingly welcomed the idea.

“We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earths. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do (that),” Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday, in a sign that he may be open to continuing aid to the war-ravaged country.

Zelenskyy told reporters Tuesday that Ukraine was open to an “investment” from “partners who help us defend our land and push the enemy back with their weapons, their presence, and sanctions packages.”

“And this is absolutely fair,” he added.

ZELENSKYY WARNS PEACE TALKS WITHOUT UKRAINE ‘DANGEROUS’ AFTER TRUMP CLAIMS MEETINGS WITH RUSSIA ‘GOING WELL’

President Donald Trump suggested Ukraine begin offering critical minerals to the U.S. in exchange for military aid, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy seemingly welcomed the idea. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

Zelenskyy had been trying to develop the untapped resources, offering tax breaks and investment rights to outside entities looking to mine the minerals in 2021, before the start of the war. The Ukrainian leader pitched the mining of such minerals as part of the victory plan he drew up last year and pitched to U.S. lawmakers.

Ukraine has strategic reserves of titanium, lithium, graphite and uranium, but much of its critical minerals are in areas currently under occupation by Russia. Donetsk, Luhansk and Dnipropetrovsk are all some of the most mineral-rich regions, meaning Ukraine would need to take back territory to get them out.

Zelenskyy revealed Ukrainian leaders have had contact with U.S. officials, including Keith Kellogg, the U.S. special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, and are nailing down a time for them to visit.

ZELENSKYY PRAISES TRUMP FOR ‘JUST AND FAIR’ RHETORIC TOWARD RUSSIA: ‘EXACTLY WHAT PUTIN IS AFRAID OF’

Zelenskyy seemingly agreed with Trump’s rare earth mineral suggestion. (Reuters/Alina Smutko)

“We have working dates when the American team will come. The dates and composition are being coordinated right now. We are waiting for the team and will work together,” Zelenskyy said.

Congress has approved around $175 billion in aid for Ukraine – consisting of military and economic assistance – since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

Russia framed the Trump idea as proof the U.S. no longer wanted to give free aid to Ukraine – but suggested they’d rather the U.S. did not offer any aid to Ukraine.

Ukraine has been fighting off Russia’s invasion since February 2022. (Reuters/Ivan Antypenko)

“If we call things as they are, this is a proposal to buy help — in other words, not to give it unconditionally, or for some other reasons, but specifically to provide it on a commercial basis,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday.

“It would be better, of course, for the assistance to not be provided at all, as that would contribute to the end of this conflict,” he added.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Trump’s suggestion “very egotistic, very self-centered,” and said Ukraine would need its resources to finance postwar rebuilding.

China is by far the biggest producer of rare earth minerals, used in smartphones, electric vehicles, household appliances and even cancer drugs. It accounts for around 70% of global production.

February 4, 2025
Trump facing first test in Africa amid bloody battles ‘over electric vehicle battery minerals’

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JOHANNESBURG- Fighting reportedly over minerals needed for electric cars and mobile phones has become the Trump administration’s first real foreign affairs test in Africa.

Bodies lie rotting in the streets, and hospitals have been overwhelmed with casualties in Goma, a city of 2 million people in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). M23 rebels, backed, the United Nations and other sources say, by neighboring Rwanda, are said to have taken over the city.

“The M23 appears to have taken control of a significant portion of the city following intense fighting with the Congolese army,” The United Nation’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated Wednesday, adding, “Reports have emerged of looting of shops, offices, and warehouses belonging to humanitarian organizations, while heavy gunfire and explosions have been heard in various parts of the city.”

OCHA added “Local sources believe the civilian casualties are significant, although [an] assessment is yet to be conducted.” Thirteen South African peacekeeping troops have been killed over the past week.

13 UN PEACEKEEPERS, ALLIED SOLDIERS DEAD IN CONGO AS M23 REBELS MAKE GAINS IN KEY CITY

March 23 Movement (M23) rebels gather for large-scale protests as they set on fire the Rwandan, French, Belgian and Kenyan embassy buildings and loot some shopping centers during anti-Rwandan demonstrations allegedly supported by M23 and rebels in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo on Jan. 28, 2025. (Chris Milosi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho., recently stated in part that, “The M23 must immediately stop their advance on Goma, and all parties must cease hostilities, restore unhindered humanitarian access, and honor their commitments.”

In the DRC’s capital, 10 foreign embassies, including the U.S. mission, have been attacked. Some, including the French Embassy, have been set on fire.

“The M23 or March 23 Movement is a Tutsi-led and eastern-DRC based insurgent movement born around 2012”, Frans Cronje, adviser at the U.S. Yorktown Foundation for Freedom, told Fox News Digital. He added “The ensuing conflict has been sustained for more than 3 decades, in large part as a consequence of the extraordinary mineral wealth of the DRC.”

Cronje, who also advises corporations and government departments on economic and political trajectory, continued. “According to a United Nations report, M23 has raised significant sums from ‘taxing’ minerals mined in areas under its control – a practice common to armed groups operating in the DRC.”

President Donald Trump speaks about the midair crash between American Airlines Flight 5342 and a military helicopter in Washington, in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Jan. 30, 2025 in Washington, D.C. Trump was later asked about the violence in the DRC and called it a “very serious problem.” (Roberto Schmidt/AFP via Getty Images)

This is borne out by a 160-page report commissioned by the U.N. Security Council from their “Group of Experts on the Democratic Republic of the Congo”, and presented to the council late last year.

The report states M23 and Rwanda Defence Force operatives in the DRC captured “the Rubaya mining sites – one of the world’s largest sources of coltan – a mineral used in EV batteries – on 30 April 2024.”

M23 rebels patrol in Goma, Democratic Republic of the Congo, on Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Moses Sawasawa)

The U.N. report says the M23 joined up with another rebel group, the AFC (the Congo River Alliance), “and levied taxes and in-kind payments on the sale and transport of minerals. The tax on a kilogram of coltan and manganese was $7, while the tax on tin (cassiterite) was $4 per kilogram. AFC/M23 thus collected at least $800,000 monthly from the taxation of coltan production and trade in Rubaya.”

Cronje pointed out this week that there are other precious metals M23 has its eyes on too. “The DRC accounts for between 70-80% of the world’s Cobalt production. Cobalt’s importance is such that the U.S. Department of Energy has listed it as one of seven minerals essential to U.S. economic competitiveness, while the Department of Defense identified cobalt as having ‘critical’ applications. Alongside that, the DRC is the third-largest producer of copper in the world, accounting for about 11% of global production.”

President Donald Trump spoke about the fighting on Thursday. “It is a very serious problem. I agree, but I don’t think it’s appropriate right now to talk about it,” when asked about it during a briefing on the deadly airline crash in Washington, D.C., on Thursday afternoon.

BIDEN ADMIN’S DRIVE FOR GREEN ENERGY LEADS TO ACCUSATIONS OF FORCED CHILD LABOR MINING FOR EV BATTERY METALS

Boys said to be mining for cobalt in a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (ILO/UNICEF)

However, the State Department is speaking on the issue, calling for a ceasefire. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told Rwandan President Paul Kagame, “the United States is deeply troubled by [the] escalation of the ongoing conflict in eastern DRC, particularly the fall of Goma to the Rwandan backed M23 armed group,” spokesperson Tammy Bruce stated, adding “the secretary urged an immediate ceasefire in the region and for all parties to respect sovereign territorial integrity,” adding that the overriding goal of the United States is a durable peace that addresses security concerns and lays the foundation for a thriving regional economy.”

Kagame responded on X, posting that his conversation with Rubio was “productive.” He said it covered “the need to ensure a ceasefire in (the) Eastern DRC, and address the root causes of the conflict once and for all.”

Kagame added, “I look forward to working with the Trump Administration to create the prosperity and security that the people of our region deserve.”

“The M23 conflict is indeed about minerals, but more so Rwandan ambition to control and administer much of Congo’s North Kivu”, Bill Roggio, editor of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital. “Rwanda would like to control not only the minerals, but also the entire trade in the region, and flex its muscles as a new regional powerhouse in central and East Africa. Rwanda also claims it is about border security, but really it’s more about its own geopolitical ambitions in the region.”

Roggio continued, saying that it “is somewhat related to the Biden administration’s inability to bring both Congo and Rwanda to the table and negotiate real settlements, either through the Luanda Process or the earlier Nairobi Process.” He added “especially it is a failure to put enough pressure on Rwanda to pull back its support for M23, as the Obama administration had accomplished in 2012 when M23 previously captured Goma, but were forced to withdraw after the U.S. pressured Rwanda.”

For the new administration, there is a chance here to make positive steps towards a positive legacy in Africa. Michael Rubin told Fox News Digital, “For Trump and Rubio, they have the opportunity to do something different that could fix the problem permanently.”

Rubin is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, and in 2024 embedded for several weeks with the M23 rebels.

INCOMING TRUMP ADMIN, CONGRESS SHOWDOWN LOOMS WITH SOUTH AFRICA OVER SUPPORT FOR RUSSIA, US FOES

Members of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) ride on a pickup truck as they secure the evacuation of non-essential UN staff, following the fight between M23 rebels and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, in Goma, North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on January 25, 2025. (Reuters/Arlette Bashizi TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

Rubin continued, “What we’ve had for too long is that old definition of insanity: doing the same thing repeatedly, but expecting different results. There’s been two Congo wars, and if we try to apply the same band-aid to a sucking chest wound this time, there will be a third.”

The blame should rest not on Rwanda, Rubin believes, but on the DRC. “The narrative that the DRC is the victim and Rwanda and Uganda aggressors is tired. The problem is Kinshasa. If Tshisekedi (Felix Tshisekedi, DRC President) can stop armed groups in the south, he can do so in the east as well. He turned to ethnic incitement to distract from incompetent government; that never ends well.”

Rubin added that “the arguments about Rwanda looting the region are not valid. Businessmen in North Kivu, are blunt: Rwanda and Uganda charge less in customs duties than Kinshasa extracts in taxes. Kinshasa cries wolf because Kigali outcompetes them. If Kinshasa wanted businessmen to turn to them, try lowering taxes and building plants to turn raw materials into something with higher sale value.”

China and Russia stand on the sidelines, waiting to choose who they dance with to get the DRC’s minerals. China has spoken out against the M23. It threatens their mining interests in the country. Additionally, soldiers from Russia’s Africa Corps, the former Wagner Group’s private army of mercenaries, have been seen in Goma, propping up the DRC’s soldiers against the M23.

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Cronje told Fox News Digital Russia and China are poised to potentially support the winner, saying “the geostrategic importance of the region is such that all global powers have an interest in influencing the balance of power in eastern DRC either directly or indirectly.”

January 31, 2025