President Donald Trump said a long-delayed minerals deal with Ukraine will be signed next week, a step that could help bolster his efforts to broker peace between the beleaguered nation and Russia.
Trump, who was meeting with the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, told reporters Thursday afternoon that the minerals deal would be signed next Thursday, saying that he assumes “they’re going to live up to the deal, so we’ll see. But we have a deal on that.”
However, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent later clarified that the administration is “still working on the details” and was “shooting for around April 26” for a signed deal.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio also spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Thursday, according to a readout from the State Department.
“The Secretary conveyed to his Russian counterpart the same message the U.S. team communicated to the Ukrainian delegation and our European allies in Paris: President Trump and the United States want this war to end, and have now presented to all parties the outlines of a durable and lasting peace,” Spokesperson Tammy Bruce wrote. “The encouraging reception in Paris to the U.S. framework shows that peace is possible if all parties commit to reaching an agreement.”
The deal was expected to be signed in February when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the White House. However, a spat between the two leaders and Vice President JD Vance ended with Zelensky leaving earlier than expected without a signed minerals deal.
Zelensky had tried to convince Trump to include a security guarantee from the U.S. in the minerals deal, but Trump was staunchly opposed to the idea.
The president appeared to walk back previous comments he made on Monday and before that, pointing responsibility for the Russian-Ukraine war on Zelensky, despite Russia’s invasion kicking off the battle.
“I don’t hold Zelensky responsible, but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that that war started,” Trump said Thursday. “That was a war that we would have never started if I were president. You’d have millions of people living right now that are dead.”
During a Monday White House press conference with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Trump claimed Zelensky helped “start” the conflict.
“You don’t start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,” Trump said.
FULL LIST OF EXECUTIVE ORDERS, ACTIONS, AND PROCLAMATIONS TRUMP HAS MADE AS PRESIDENT
This week, Zelensky extended an invitation to Trump to visit Ukraine and implored Trump to abandon his negotiations with Russia to end the war.
“Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead,” Zelensky said during an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes.
![[GOOD PRESS] ON](https://georgemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/16389056566437433941_2048-300x300.jpeg)
