President says \u2018I hear he\u2019s coming on Friday\u2019 amid reports that terms of US-Ukraine aid exchange have been reached<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Donald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal<\/a> to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The announcement followed days of tense negotiations between the US and Ukraine<\/a> in which Zelenskyy alleged the US was pressuring him to sign a deal worth more than $500bn that would force \u201cten generations\u201d of Ukrainians to pay it back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Media outlets reported late on Tuesday that the terms of an agreement had been reached.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hear that he\u2019s coming on Friday,\u201d Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. \u201cCertainly it\u2019s OK with me if he\u2019d like to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to the Financial Times, which first reported the deal<\/a>, the new terms of the deal did not reportedly include the onerous demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources, which include rare earth metals and Ukrainian oil and gas resources.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A framework for the deal included joint ownership of a fund to develop Ukraine\u2019s mineral resources with certain caveats for those resources already contributing to the state budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was more favourable to Ukraine than the original deal proposed by Washington, but did not include references to long-term security guarantees that Kyiv wanted to receive in the deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain details of the deal remained unclear, including the US\u2019s ownership stake in the new fund.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Asked what Ukraine would receive in the deal, Trump said: \u201c$350bn, military equipment and the right to fight on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019ve pretty much negotiated our deal on earth and various other things,\u201d Trump added. \u201cWe\u2019ll be looking \u2026 general security for Ukraine<\/a> later on. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s going to be a problem. There are a lot of people that want to do it, and I spoke with Russia about it. They didn\u2019t seem to have a problem with it. So I think they understand they\u2019re not going back. And once we do this, they\u2019re not going back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Neither the US nor Ukrainian governments immediately responded to requests for comment from the Guardian on whether the deal had been agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n