Zelenskiy on US minerals deal says I can t sell Ukraine

KYIV – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Feb 19 rejected US demands for US$500 billion (S$671.6 billion) in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the US had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and had offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.

The Ukrainian leader, who is under major pressure from Mr Trump’s White House, said Washington had supplied his country with US$67 billion in weapons and US$31.5 billion in direct budget support throughout the nearly three-year war with Russia.

“You can’t call this (US$)500 billion and ask us to return (US$)500 billion in minerals or something else. This is not a serious conversation,” Mr Zelensky said.

Mr Trump has said he wants US$500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv to secure Washington’s assistance, and his team last week proposed a deal that Kyiv declined to sign in its current form.

Mr Zelensky has said the proposed deal did not contain the security provisions Ukraine desperately needs to protect it from Russian aggression.

He said the draft deal proposed the US taking ownership of 50 per cent of Ukraine’s critical minerals.

“I defend Ukraine, I can’t sell our country. I said OK, give us some sort of positive. You write some sort of guarantees, and we will write a memorandum... some sort of percentages,” he said.

“I was told: Only 50 (per cent). I said: OK, no. Let the lawyers work some more, they did not do all the necessary work. I am just the decision-maker, I don’t work on the details of this document. Let them work on it.”

The matter of how much aid the US has supplied to Ukraine is taking on important diplomatic significance as Kyiv tries to retain the backing of what has been its most important