US, Ukraine agree to terms on mineral deal, Ukraine says
Ukraine and the United States have agreed to terms on a deal relating to critical minerals and other resources, according to a senior Ukrainian official.
While Ukraine has said it agreed to the deal, President Donald Trump did not confirm the U.S. had agreed yet, instead saying he had heard Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will visit Washington, D.C., to finalize the deal on Friday and that "it's OK with me if he'd like to.
"And he would like to sign it together with me," he added. "And I understand that's a big deal, a very big deal."
However, later, he said, "We've pretty much negotiated our deal on raw earth."
Officials familiar with the negotiations told ABC News that the U.S. and Ukraine are 99.9% there on the deal. Still, the deal isn't going to be finalized until the presidents put their signatures on it, which is expected to happen as soon as Friday, when they are set to meet.
As recently as Monday, Trump was repeating that some access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals would be necessary to secure a deal involving the nation's continued support for Ukraine. Trump referred to them as a "security" against the investments that the U.S. has already made and might make in the future, although his claims of how much aid the U.S. has provided to date have been widely disputed.
Trump said the U.S. has spent $350 billion toward Ukraine, though he has not cited where he's gotten that figure.
Government resources place the amount of aid appropriated by Congress for Ukraine since the war began in 2022 at $174 billion.
"That is why we must have an agreement with Ukraine on critical minerals and rare earths and various other things as security. And I think that that's happening. I think we've made a lot of progress," Trump said on Monday during a joint press conference with France's President Emmanuel Macron. The two leaders met to discuss a path forward to resolving the Russia-Ukraine war, which entered its third year this month.
The senior official also confirmed to ABC News that Zelenskyy plans to visit Washington on Friday.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell, Ian Pannell, Bruno Roeber, Fidel Pavlenk, Michelle Stoddart, Shannon Kingston and Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
