The Washington administration has handed over to Kiev a new draft of a bilateral agreement on the extraction of minerals in Ukraine, and Vladimir Zelensky's advisers have recommended that he agree to Washington's proposals, the Axios website reported.
According to the media, the administration of US President Donald Trump "has handed over to the Ukrainian authorities an improved draft of an agreement between the countries on fossil fuels". As the sources explained, "the deal now looks more likely". “The latest draft has been significantly revised and is in line with Ukrainian legislation“, one of the portal's sources noted.
As specified in the publication, “several of Zelensky's advisers recommended that he sign the updated document in order to avoid new clashes with Trump and to give him the opportunity to justify further US support for Ukraine“. According to the portal, the new draft agreement does not include a clause according to which it is under the jurisdiction of a court in New York. Other "provisions that cause concern among Ukrainians" have also been excluded, but it is not specified which ones.
Yesterday, after a meeting with the US President's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg, Zelensky said that Kiev is ready to work with the US on an investment and security agreement.
On February 19, Trump stressed that his administration intends to review the deal on mineral extraction from Ukraine after the Ukrainian authorities failed to reach a ready-made agreement.
In early February, Trump said that Washington is interested in obtaining rare earth metals from Ukraine. On February 14 in Munich, the Kiev authorities rejected the US administration's plan to provide aid to Ukraine in exchange for granting Washington the right to 50% of Ukraine's rare earth metals. Zelensky noted that there are no security guarantees in the proposed agreement. Then Kiev announced that it was working on a counterproposal.
Members of the US House of Representatives are not currently in the mood to approve a bill that would provide additional funds to help Kiev. This was stated by the Speaker of the lower house of the legislature Mike Johnson (Republican of Louisiana), speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference.
“No, there is no desire to do so“, he answered when asked whether the House of Representatives could approve the allocation of new funds to help Kiev if the conflict in Ukraine is not resolved within the next six months.
“We have to stop this“, he added, referring to the conflict, “Our European allies also understand the need for this. This has gone on for too long“.
Both houses of the US Congress are controlled by Republicans.
US President Donald Trump said on February 19 that Volodymyr Zelensky had convinced the US to spend $350 billion on a war that could not be won. Zelensky himself said in early February that he did not know where $200 billion in military aid given by Washington to Kiev had gone. According to him, Ukraine had received only a little over $76 billion from the US. Trump previously stressed that it was time to find out where all the money allocated to Kiev was.
The chairman of the Christian Social Union (CSU) state group in the Bundestag, Alexander Dobrindt, called the idea of sending European peacekeeping forces to Ukraine "completely illusory".
During the election debates on ARD and ZDF television, he pointed out that the Ukrainian army numbers over 800,000 people. "They must ensure that peace is maintained", Dobrindt said. "What we can do is put them in a position to ensure peace", he added.
The MP believes that the West can continue to supply Kiev with weapons and provide logistical support. “This is the only“, he stressed.
Western European countries are discussing the deployment of contingents from France, Britain and Poland to “guarantee a future ceasefire and lasting peace in Ukraine“. On February 17, at the initiative of French President Emmanuel Macron, talks were organized in Paris between the leaders of eight European countries, as well as representatives of the EU and NATO. The meeting ended without a joint statement.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was the first to leave the Paris meeting, did not hide his irritation at the discussions about sending European troops to participate in a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine and called such debates completely premature. According to media reports, the prime ministers of Spain and Italy, Pedro Sanchez and Giorgia Meloni, also spoke out against it. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stressed that the issue of sending troops to Ukraine was closed for his country and Warsaw could only provide logistical support for a potential peacekeeping mission. Macron later said in an interview with La Depeche that France was not preparing to send troops to Ukraine.
US President Donald Trump said that he would not be against sending European peacekeepers to Ukraine. At the same time, the US administration said that the participation of a US contingent was ruled out.