Key points
- Ukraine likely to sign deal with US
- US Ukraine’s key backer since Russian invasion
- Waltz’s comments overshadow Zelensky-Kellogg meeting
ISLAMABAD: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky needs to return to the negotiating table and strike a deal on US access to Ukraine’s critical minerals, White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz has said.
On Wednesday, Zelensky rejected US demands for a share of its rare earth minerals — a “deal” Trump said would reflect the amount of aid the US had provided to Ukraine during its war with Russia.
The comments, made at a White House briefing on Thursday, overshadowed a meeting in Kyiv between Zelensky and Keith Kellogg, the US chief envoy to Ukraine, according to BBC.
“The bottom line”
“Look, here’s the bottom line, President Zelensky is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term, and that is good for Ukraine,” National Security Advisor Michael Waltz told attendees at a conservative conference on the outskirts of the capital Washington.
Kyiv has said the deal is still on the table despite an extraordinary break between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump.
Trump’s top advisers have doubled down on their attacks on the Ukrainian leader in recent days, after the Republican branded him a “dictator” and falsely claimed Ukraine had “started” the war with Russia.
The United States had been Ukraine’s most important financial, military and political backer since Russia invaded in February 2022, in what the West’s top powers had condemned as an unprovoked and illegal war of aggression.
AFP reported that Trump’s White House is seeking to change the terms of US aid, insisting that it needs a return for American taxpayers.
Waltz decried critics “clutching their pearls” over the US shift on Ukraine, which has seen Trump and his top officials echo Kremlin narratives against Kyiv and Zelensky.
What could be better for Ukraine “than to be in an economic partnership with the United States?” Waltz said at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), an annual gathering of American conservatives.
Europe, Kyiv side-lined
Kyiv and Europe have also complained of being sidelined after Trump opened talks with Moscow over ending the war.
Waltz said Washington was “talking to the Russians, understanding what they are going to need, and then understanding what the Ukrainians are going to need, talking to all of the Europeans.
“You can’t end a war if you don’t talk to both sides.”
