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.
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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.
