(Reuters) – Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday that officials from his country and the U.S. were working on concluding an economic deal to ensure that the accord worked and was fair to Kyiv.
In Washington, U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiators were close to clinching an accord.
Zelenskiy rejected an initial proposal focusing on cooperation around metals, saying it was “not a serious conversation” and not in Ukraine’s interests.
“Today, the teams of Ukraine and the United States are working on a draft agreement between our governments,” Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.
“This agreement has the potential to strengthen our relations and, most importantly, the details must be arranged in such a way that ensures it works. I am hoping for a result, a fair result.”
Zelenskiy’s comments followed a conversation between his chief of staff, Andrii Yermak, and U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian president’s office said the two men discussed “aligning positions” in bilateral relations.
Yermak “stressed the importance of maintaining bilateral cooperation and a high level of relations between Ukraine and the United States”, according to the president’s office.
Waltz said on Friday he expected Zelenskiy to sign the minerals agreement with the U.S. as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war.
“Here’s the bottom line, President Zelenskiy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term,” Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington.
Zelenskiy rejected U.S. demands for $500 billion in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the U.S. had supplied nowhere near that sum.
He also said the proposed deal offered none of the security guarantees that Ukraine is seeking as part of a peace settlement.
Zelenskiy became involved in barbed exchanges with Trump this week over approaches to a peace settlement and the opening of U.S.-Russian talks to which Ukraine was not invited.
Trump branded the Ukrainian leader “a dictator without elections,” a reference to Zelenskiy remaining in office beyond his mandate without calling a wartime election.
In his address, Zelenskiy provided details of telephone calls he made to European and African leaders — including Croatia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Slovenia, Ireland, Luxembourg and Sweden.
“The main conclusion is that Europe must and can do considerably more so that peace can realistically be achieved,” he said.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Alison Williams, Ron Popeski and David Gregorio)
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