Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared to rebuff Donald Trump’s first attempt at cornering Ukraine’s critical mineral deposits to pay back the US billions spent fighting Russia. The Ukrainian president said that a draft deal – presented in Kyiv last week by the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent – did not yet contain the security provisions Kyiv needed. In a Meet the Press interview, Zelenskyy explained his terms: “Help us defend this, and we will make money on this together. And here it’s very important that in this document shall be a term to protect it. And that is the security guarantees. If we are not given the security guarantees from the United States, I believe that the economic treaty will not work. It must all be fair.”
The minerals in Ukraine include so-called rare earth varieties as well as titanium, uranium, lithium and others. Three sources told the Reuters news agency that the US had proposed taking ownership of 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Zelenskyy also pointed out that there are deposits in areas belonging to Ukraine but captured by Russia. “The second part that is not discussed yet but it must be, that is what Putin captured … It seems to me important to understand what we will do with those rare earths that now cost billions, hundreds of billions, that Putin occupied. Is it to give to him? … This is what I want to discuss.”
On Monday, US officials led by Marco Rubio are due to start preliminary talks in Saudi Arabia with Russian counterparts over a ceasefire. Partly in answer to that, Emmanuel Macron will host a Paris summit of European defence powers to address the US lockout of Europe and Kyiv from the process. This week the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and Rubio, the US secretary of state, are due to hold the first meeting at their level between the US and Russia in over two years. The French president’s Paris meeting will aim to outline a European action plan after days of chaotic briefing by the Trump administration, write Patrick Wintour, Jon Henley, Julian Borger and Peter Walker.
Zelenskyy has also headed to the Middle East. On Sunday, he arrived in the United Arab Emirates to discuss Russia-Ukraine prisoner exchanges. A Ukrainian delegation arrived in Saudi Arabia, reportedly to prepare for a possible visit by Zelenskyy. However, there was no confirmation that he would attend the US-Russia talks in Riyadh, with the Saudi Arabia visit said to be about other matters such as investment.
Rubio on Sunday tried to ease US-Europe tensions, telling CBS the continent would be part of any “real negotiations” to end Moscow’s war and signalling that US talks with Russia were a chance to see how serious Vladimir Putin is about peace. “Ultimately … Ukraine will have to be involved because they’re the ones that were invaded, and the Europeans will have to be involved because they have sanctions on Putin and Russia as well,” Rubio said. “We’re just not there yet.”
The frenzied political developments came as Ukrainian forces recaptured the village of Pischane, south-west of the city of Pokrovsk on the frontline in the country’s east, amid signs Russia’s advance may be slowing down. Russian units had made rapid gains in the area in December and January, but since early this month, their progress has stalled, Luke Harding writes from Kyiv. Russian bloggers say Ukrainian drones dominate the skies and have been methodically destroying armoured vehicles. Russian troops have to walk 10km on foot, with many not arriving alive, they say.
Ukraine’s air defence units were trying to repel an overnight Russian drone attack on Kyiv, officials said early on Monday. “Please, stay safe,” said the military administration chief, Timur Tkachenko.
Two drones violated Moldovan airspace late on Sunday near the border with Ukraine, the government said, three days after the Russian ambassador was summoned to the foreign ministry in connection with an earlier incident.
Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday its air defence units had destroyed six Ukrainian drones within an hour over the Sea of Azov in southern Ukraine and three more in Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar.
