Ukraine: Zelenskyy plans to meet Trump officials in Germany
February 11, 2025
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to meet US Vice President JD Vance on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to talk about the path toward ending Russia's nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
While Trump has urged a swift end to the conflict, Zelenskyy is demanding security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia.
In a video released by Ukrainian media outlet UNIAN, Zelenskyy said he planned to meet Vance in Munich after meeting "serious people" from the Trump administration in Kyiv this week.
The Ukrainian presidency told the AFP news agency that the meeting with Vance would take place on Friday.
Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also traveling to the conference, might both be involved in the talks in Munich.
US President Donald Trump has confirmed that he is soon to send his special envoy Keith Kellogg, who has been tasked with drawing up a proposal to stop the fighting, to Ukraine. Kellogg is expected to arrive in Kyiv on February 20.
Meanwhile, Trump also said he would "probably" speak to Zelenskyy this week.
Rare earths in exchange for US military aid?
On Monday, Trump floated the idea that Ukraine "may be Russian someday," as he discussed the conflict in an interview with broadcaster Fox News.
"They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday," he said.
Trump emphasized making a return on investment with US aid to Ukraine, suggesting a trade for Kyiv's natural resources, including rare minerals.
"We are going to have all this money in there, and I say I want it back. And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth," Trump said. "And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don't feel stupid."
Ukraine has said it would be open to a deal on rare earths.
"We really have this big potential in the territory which we control," Andrii Yermak, chief of staff to the Ukrainian president, told The Associated Press.
"We are interested to work, to develop, with our partners, first of all, with the United States."
In response to Trump's remarks, the Kremlin says a "significant part" of Ukraine "wants to be Russia."
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that the situation in Ukraine "largely corresponds to President Trump's words."
Hegseth urges Europe to spend more on defense
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth began a multi-day trip to Europe on Tuesday with a stop in southern Germany, where he visited he headquarters of US European Command (USEUCOM) and US Africa Command (AFRICOM).
"The European continent deserves to be free from any aggression, but it ought be those in the neighborhood investing the most" in its defense, he said at a US base in Germany.
The "urgency of this moment requires friends talking to friends about capabilities, about leadership, about stepping up, about burden sharing," he told a press conference, while repeating Trump's demand that NATO countries ramp up defense spending to 5% of GDP.
On Wednesday, Hegseth will travel to Brussels, Belgium, to attend the Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting, chaired for the first time by the United Kingdom.
On Thursday, Hegseth will attend a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels.
The last stop on his trip is Poland, where the Pentagon says he will hold talks with the government on bilateral defense cooperation and deterrence on NATO's eastern flank.
Edited by: Natalie Muller, Wesley Rahn