Ukraine updates: No security guarantee from US for minerals

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer confirmed he will host leaders of Italy, Germany, Poland and other allies on Sunday to discuss their response to Trump's push for peace in Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is also expected to attend.

The Trump administration is stepping back from supporting Ukraine. The US president said the responsibility to ensure long-term security for the country lies within Europe.

Sunday's meeting will come shortly after Starmer returns from his visit to the White House on Thursday.

The British leader flew to Washington after announcing an increase in the defense budget in the hope to maintain close ties between the two nations.

US President Donald Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare earths and other critical minerals. However, Trump also said the United States would not provide security guarantees to Ukraine and that it was up to Europe to protect Ukraine's security.

Tymofiy Mylovanov, former Ukrainian minister of economic development and current president of the Kyiv School of Economics, told DW that the entire deal is to be developed and the bargaining behind the doors will continue.

"What we have seen in the last week or two is that the public posturing and political theater on both sides and specifically by the Trump administration has been decoupled by what is actually in the deal," Mylovanov said.

He said Trump points out that the deal will pay back the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been given to Ukraine in support, while Zelensky has said several times that it's a red line for him.

"So they continue to give different public statements to different relative audiences, their domestic audiences, while in the deal there is nothing about this $500 billion paying back and so on forth," Mylovanov said. "The disagreements are clear. The ability to compromise is also clear, but it's not going to be an easy walk.

"I would have liked to live in a different world in which the US doesn't try to disengage from being a military supporter of Europe and Ukraine. But we are not in that world. So to keep a relationship with the US, to have some language and some support that is already a win," Mylovanov said.

Watch the entire interview with Mylovanov here:

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reiterated that security guarantees are crucial ahead of talks with US President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday on a natural resources deal.

"The agreement with America. Support for our state and people. Guarantees of peace and security — this is the key to ensuring that Russia will no longer destroy the lives of other nations," Zelenskyy said in his evening video address.

"For me, and for all of us in the world, it is crucial that America's assistance is not stopped. Strength is essential on the path to peace," he added.

The Ukrainian leader's video was released shortly after Trump confirmed that Zelenskiy would visit Washington on Friday to sign the deal on rare earths and other issues, but suggested that the United States would not provide extensive security guarantees.

US President Donald Trump dismissed Ukraine's aspirations to join the NATO military alliance, once again echoing Russia's stance that the issue caused Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

"NATO — you can forget about," Trump said. "I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started."

Russia has repeatedly cited the post-Soviet expansion of NATO, and in particular Ukraine's membership ambitions, as a reason for the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has consistently called for his country to join NATO as the only way to guarantee Ukraine's sovereignty and independence from its nuclear-armed eastern neighbor.

US President Donald Trump said the United States would not provide security guarantees to Ukraine and that it was up to Europe to protect Ukraine's security. 

"I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much," Trump said at a Cabinet meeting. "We're going to have Europe do that because... Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well."

Earlier, Trump announced that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare earths and other critical minerals.

Kyiv hoped that by signing the deal it would get security promises from Washington to deter Russia from taking any further military action in Ukraine.

Trump also said that he believed his election would bring about the end of the Russian war against Ukraine. 

US President Donald Trump said his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will visit Washington on Friday to sign an agreement on rare earth minerals.

"President Zelenskyy is going to be coming on Friday, that is now confirmed," Trump said Wednesday at the White House during his first Cabinet meeting of his second term.

Diplomats from the United States and Russia are set to meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss resolving issues related to their embassies, Russia's foreign minister said on Wednesday.

The meeting comes amid an easing of relations between the two countries.

The latest meeting will focus on resolving diplomatic issues after each country expelled the other's embassy staff during former US President Joe Biden's administration.

"Such a meeting will take place tomorrow in Istanbul. I think that its results will show how quickly and effectively we can move forward," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said during a visit to Qatar.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry source added: "A technical-level meeting will be held between Russian and American delegations in Istanbul tomorrow. Turkey is ready to provide all kinds of support to peace efforts, including hosting talks."

In January, US President Donald Trump initiated high-level talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, for the first time in over three years.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Lavrov then met on February 18 in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, where they agreed to kickstart talks to end the Ukraine war — without involving Kyiv.

With relations between the US and Russia improving, Washington sided with Moscow twice on Monday in votes at the United Nations, seeking to avoid condemnation of Russia's invasion of Ukraine three years ago.

NATO member Turkey has sought to play a role in negotiations to end hostilities in Ukraine, twice hosting direct negotiations between Moscow and Kyiv in March 2022.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told reporters that a proposed minerals deal with the United States is a starting point for a wider agreement.

"This is just a start, a framework, it can be a big success," Zelenskyy said. "The success will depend on our conversation with President Trump."

Kyiv hopes for security guarantees from Washington, which have reportedly not been given, to deter Russia from further military action in Ukraine.

"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it's important that it's there," Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy added that he hoped to travel to Washington on Friday to discuss a natural resources deal and future aid with US President Donald Trump and planned to ask Trump if he would halt future US aid for Ukraine.

"I would like to have this visit very much," Zelenskyy said, explaining that Friday was the the tentative date for the visit.

The success of a potential deal would "depend on our conversation with President Trump," Zelenskyy added.

The key details of the rare mineral agreement between the United States and Ukraine remain largely unreleased. Here is what's known so far about the deal that could be signed by presidents Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Donald Trump on Friday in Washington.

Initial compensation demand dropped

Initially, Trump had demanded compensation in the range of $500 billion (€476.5 billion) for the aid the US had provided under the Biden administration since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

According to the Kiel Institute, a German economic research body, that would be around four times the amount the US had sent to Ukraine — estimated at around $120 billion (€114.3 billion).

However, Ukrainian officials anonymously told the AFO news agency that demand had been dropped from the most recent draft document.

Security guarantees a Ukrainian requirement

Zelenskyy had previously raised the idea of exchanging access to Ukrainian natural resources for security commitments in October 2024. 

Ukraine remains steadfast that any deal must include long-term and robust security guarantees that would deter Russia from attacking again.

The text of the agreement on minerals may yet include a reference to Ukrainian security — possibly without concrete guarantees. Discussions on this point are reportedly still underway, according to Reuters news agency.

US investment required to explore undeveloped deposits

Ukraine has 20% of the world's estimated resources of graphite, according to France's Bureau of Geological and Mining Research.

The country also says it "possesses one of the largest lithium deposits in Europe." 

Kyiv has said "rare earth metals are known to exist in six deposits" and that an investment of $300 million would be needed to develop a deposit at Novopoltavske, which it claimed was one of the world's largest deposits.

However, not all Ukraine's natural resources are easily exploitable and some lie in territory occupied by Russia.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Kyiv and Washington have prepared a final version of a deal to extract Ukraine's rare minerals.

He said the agreement was directly connected to security guarantees for Ukraine and involves the creation of a joint investment fund.

Shmyhal said the US supports "Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees to build lasting peace."

The Ukrainian government will authorize the agreement later on Wednesday, he added.

The Kremlin is preparing for further high-level talks with the United States, a spokesperson said on Wednesday.

Dmitry Peskov told reporters that there was an understanding between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump would follow up on an earlier call with an in-person meeting.

"Contacts are being prepared at the expert level through the ministries of foreign affairs," Peskov said, without providing any specific details on when a meeting could happen.

Meanwhile, President Trump has been pushing for an agreement on a minerals deal with Ukraine, to compensate the US for the billions of dollars of military aid it had provided since Russia's full-scale invasion.

Peskov acknowledged Russia was aware that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could travel to Washington on Friday to sign a deal.

"So far there are no official statements on this matter. We have only heard that Zelensky seemed to be going to Washington on Friday," he added. "There will probably be attempts to make this visit somewhat substantive."

A broad economic deal, centered on Ukraine's rare earth minerals, has been reached between the United States and Ukraine, according to three senior Ukrainian officials.

Multiple news agencies reported the deal was nearing completion. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, one Ukrainian official said that Kyiv is hoping by signing the agreement it will ensure continued miliatry support for Ukraine.

According to Yuri Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's ministry of strategic industries, the minerals deal was initally Ukraine's idea.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today program, Sak said: "We included it in our victory plan earlier, which was presented by our president to the US and the rest of our partners in 2024."

He added: "Very soon we'll get used to the very unusual nature of this negotiating process. At the same time, we are not a nation of freeloaders, we understand that this war has lasted for three years and the time has come to switch to a slightly different narrative."

US President Donald Trump has said that he was expecting Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to visit Washington on Friday to sign a "very big deal."

Zelenskyy had rejected Trump's demand for $500 billion in valuable minerals, far exceeding the $60 billion in US military aid to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion. The demand is no longer included in the draft agreement.

The deal, however, does not provide the security guarantees Ukraine wanted. While the draft mentions "security," it doesn't specify the US role. One official said that the two presidents will discuss this when they meet.

Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, said he'd heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that "it's okay with me, if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me."