Zelenskyy to sign minerals deal at White House Friday — without security guarantees

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to travel to the White House Friday — a week after President Donald Trump called him a "dictator" — to sign a deal that would afford America access to some of Ukraine's buried natural wealth in exchange for investments in a reconstruction fund.

Trump noted Wednesday that it would be "a very big agreement."

While there was no mention in a draft of the deal of Ukraine paying the U.S. back for the hundreds of billions of dollars in aid that Kyiv has received in recent years, there are similarly no concrete security guarantees on America's part.

According to a draft of the deal obtained by CNN, the two countries plan to create a jointly managed "Reconstruction Investment Fund" that would collect and reinvest revenues resulting from the monetization of relevant Ukrainian-owned "deposits of minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable minerals."

Mineral resources already making money for Kyiv, such as the activities of Naftogaz, will not be not part of the deal.

As of Wednesday morning, the proposed deal specified that the Ukrainian government would contribute 50% of all revenues earned from such state-owned natural resource assets to the fund. Contributions will be routinely reinvested in Ukraine in the interest of promoting the nation's "safety, security, and prosperity."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed in an interview last week that when he, Vice President JD Vance, and Zelenskyy previously discussed a version of the deal that would see the U.S. "paid back some of the money taxpayers have given," Zelenskyy said he was on board and would run it through his "legislative process." However, Zelenskyy instead went public, telling reporters that he rejected the deal.

'I want to find a NATO path or something similar.'

Ukrainian officials told the Financial Times (U.K.) that Kyiv proved ready to sign the agreement after the U.S. dropped demands for a right to $500 billion in mineral wealth.

Although the draft noted that the U.S. supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees and would maintain a long-term financial commitment to the country's development, it makes no mention of America providing such guarantees.

Trump said during his Wednesday Cabinet meeting, "I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We're going to have Europe do that."

According to the BBC, Zelenskyy confirmed Wednesday he had pushed for a security guarantee from the U.S. but came up empty-handed.

"I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it's important that it's there," said Zelenskyy.

When asked whether he'd abandon the deal if he did not get what he wanted, Zelenskyy told reporters, "I want to find a NATO path or something similar," adding, "If we don't get security guarantees, we won't have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing."

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