Trump offered Ukraine a new contract: "Look carefully and sign"

Trump called Zelensky a dictator who chose war with Russia, while the Ukrainian president accused his American colleague of believing in Russian disinformation. Sources on both sides say a deal is certain.

Informed sources told Axios that several aides urged the Ukrainian president to sign the updated proposal to avoid further conflict and allow Trump to justify his support for Ukraine.

"There has been a significant improvement in the recent draft and it is in line with Ukrainian law," the source said.

Trump's national security adviser Mike Waltz told reporters that Zelensky must "go back to the table" on the issue of minerals.

"These are negotiations. And in negotiations, you negotiate. Ukraine wants to negotiate about minerals, so we are discussing that," said the White House official.

Ukraine is located in an area with significant reserves of rare minerals that are key to the most advanced technologies. The total value of the minerals could be measured in trillions of dollars.

The minerals deal is not specifically linked to any deal to end the war in Ukraine, but the two issues have dramatically intertwined this week.

The idea of ​​economic partnership

The idea of ​​an economic partnership between Ukraine and the USA was initially presented by Zelensky last September, during a meeting with Trump in New York.

Last week, three hours before US Finance Minister Scott Bessant arrived for a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv, the US ambassador handed over a draft agreement on cooperation in mineral mining.

The draft agreement states that the US will get 50 percent of the minerals, that the agreement will be subject to the jurisdiction of a court in New York and that it will override any other Ukrainian trade agreement, according to two sources who have read the original draft.

During their meeting, Bessent told Zelensky that Trump was insisting on signing it immediately. Zelensky told Besent that he could not sign the document he had just received.

Ukrainians were also disappointed that the US draft did not include any security guarantees for Ukraine and that it was being imposed on them at a time when Ukraine was excluded from US-Russian negotiations on its future.

But they were also surprised when Trump began publicly attacking Zelensky, including on the minerals proposal.

"Scott Bessant went there and was treated pretty harshly because they basically told him no," Trump told reporters on Wednesday.

"He came back empty-handed. They didn't want to sign the document," he said.

"Please read this contract carefully and sign"

Days later, when Zelensky met with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Munich, they presented him with a less binding draft of the Memorandum of Understanding on mineral mining, the Ukrainian official said.

Zelensky told Vance and Rubio that he could not sign the document because, according to the Ukrainian constitution, such an agreement must be approved by the parliament.

"That was news for us that Zelensky's team did not tell us before that meeting," said a Trump administration official.

Zelensky's stance on the minerals deal was an issue that frustrated Trump and other senior US officials and heightened tensions over the US-Russia meeting in Saudi Arabia, US and Ukrainian officials say.

"There's a lot of frustration. Vice President Vance was very frustrated leaving the Munich Security Conference, on top of the president being frustrated," Waltz told Fox News.

"We proposed that the U.S. invest with Ukraine in its economy and natural resources and become a partner in Ukraine's future. This is the best security guarantee I could hope for. More than another pallet of ammunition. Why are we getting criticism? It's unacceptable. They need to tone it down. Look carefully and sign this agreement," Waltz said.

Trump said Wednesday night that he was trying to "revive" the minerals deal.