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‘We're constructive’: Ukraine ready to sign minerals deal with US, says Zelensky
The deal, aimed at resolving the Ukraine conflict, collapsed on Friday after a televised clash in the Oval Office with Donald Trump.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said that Ukraine is prepared to sign a minerals deal with the United States.
“The agreement that's on the table will be signed if the parties are ready,” Zelensky said during a late-night briefing with UK media after a landmark summit in London.
The deal, initially intended as a step toward resolving the conflict in Ukraine, collapsed on Friday following a televised clash in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump.
“It is our policy to continue what happened in the past, we're constructive. If we agreed to sign the minerals deal, we're ready to sign it,” Zelensky said, quoted by the BBC.
Zelensky had travelled to Washington on Friday for a full White House visit, where he was set to sign a US-Ukrainian deal aimed at jointly exploiting Ukraine's vast mineral resources as part of a post-war recovery plan under a US-brokered peace agreement.
However, during their Oval Office meeting, President Trump berated Zelensky, telling him to be more “thankful” for US support in the three-year conflict, adding that without American assistance, Ukraine would have been overtaken by Russia.
“You're either going to make a deal or we're out,” Trump said, adding, “And if we're out, you'll fight it out and I don't think it's going to be pretty.”
The US leader had earlier described the proposed minerals deal as “very fair.”
The proposal aimed to offer Washington financial benefits for assisting Ukraine in a truce, despite Trump’s repeated refusal to commit US military forces as backup to European troops who could serve as peacekeepers.
Following the heated exchange, Zelensky was asked to leave and drove off in his motorcade, missing the planned joint press conference. The resources deal, the White House confirmed, was left unsigned.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s allies showed their support at a summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, where many European leaders committed to increasing security spending and forming a coalition to safeguard any potential truce.
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron, returning from the London summit, said in a newspaper interview that France and Britain were considering proposing a partial one-month truce with Russia.
With AFP inputs
