Ukraine Agrees to Terms of Minerals Deal with U.S.

Ukraine has agreed to the terms of a major minerals deal with the U.S., a senior official in Kyiv told Abdujalil Absurasulov, Jaroslav Luikiv, and Anthony Zurcher of BBC News.

U.S. President Donald Trump met Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal, but the meeting resulted in a shouting match between the two leaders. I Photo: Володимир Зеленський Facebook

"We have indeed agreed to it with a number of good amendments and see it as a positive outcome," the official said, without providing further details.

Media reports indicate that Washington has dropped its initial demand for the right to $500 billion (£395 billion) in potential revenue from utilizing Ukraine’s natural resources but has not provided firm security guarantees— a key demand from the war-torn nation.

U.S. President Donald Trump met Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal, but the meeting resulted in a shouting match between the two leaders.

Without confirming that an agreement had been reached, Trump said on Tuesday that, in return for the deal, Ukraine would get "the right to fight on."

He added, "They're very brave, but without the U.S. and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time."