Photo: Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump during a meeting at Trump Tower in September 2024 (Getty Images) Author: Maria Kucheryavets
President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in the United States. The Ukrainian leader plans to meet with his American counterpart Donald Trump, and during the visit, a ceremonial signing of a framework agreement on fossil fuels between Ukraine and the United States will take place.
RBC-Ukraine has compiled everything that is known about Zelensky’s visit to the United States in the article below.
Content
- Visit program
- Bipartisan meeting with senators
- Meeting with Trump
- Signing an agreement with the USA
Visit program
The Ukrainian president's plane landed in the United States at Joint Base Andrews this night Kyiv time, FlightAware reports. It is indicated that the presidential flight from Shannon Airport in Ireland to Joint Base Andrews in Maryland in the United States lasted 8 hours.
The Office of the President of Ukraine has not officially released details of Zelensky's visit to the United States. However, according to media reports, a meeting with senators of both parties is planned as part of the visit of the President of Ukraine.
The meeting of the presidents of Ukraine and the United States is expected at approximately 18:00 Kyiv time. After which, in the presence of Zelensky and Trump, a ceremonial signing of a framework agreement on mineral resources between the Ukrainian and American sides will take place .
The American and Ukrainian leaders are then expected to give a joint press briefing .
In addition, Zelensky will give an interview to Fox News journalist Bret Baier during his visit to the United States . It will be broadcast during Fox News' “Special Report” at 18:00 local time (Saturday night at 01:00 Kyiv time). The conversation will be devoted to “the meeting, efforts to end the Russian-Ukrainian war, and other news of the day.”
Bipartisan meeting with senators
According to CNN, US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who supports aid to Ukraine, plans to meet with Zelensky in Washington with the participation of senators from both parties: Republican and Democratic .
At the same time, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said that he wants to talk to Zelensky and hear his personal opinion on the framework agreement with the United States on rare earth minerals.
“I want to hear how he (Zelensky, – ed.) feels about this agreement. It seems like extortion to me, and I want to know if he is happy with the security guarantees he has. I want my meeting with Zelensky to be bipartisan so that my Republican colleagues can hear from him how Ukraine's security concerns ours and how this administration's (Trump, – ed.) demands threaten our security,” Blumenthal said.
At the same time, another Democratic senator, Peter Welch, criticized the Trump administration's actions regarding Ukraine during a conversation with reporters. He said that the document “does not provide any security guarantees for Ukraine” and that “Trump went to Putin.”
Republican Graham responded to Welch's criticism by saying that “Democrats shouldn't even talk about Putin” because “they let him rape Ukraine.”
Republican Senator John Cornyn defended the rare minerals agreement but said he wanted to hear more about U.S. commitments to Ukraine's security in the talks.
“When the United States actually owns some of these rare earth minerals in Ukraine, I would assume that would mean that we would protect them and protect them from Russian aggression. All of that is still being worked out, and I look forward to hearing more,” he said.
CNN adds that Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a Republican, said he had “no plans” to meet with Zelensky.
Meeting with Trump
Zelensky will also meet with Trump today, making the Ukrainian president the third European leader to visit the White House this week after French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
It should be noted that in recent weeks the American president has spoken harshly towards his Ukrainian counterpart, in particular calling Zelensky a “dictator” on his social network Truth Social and talking about “4% support for Zelensky”. However, yesterday, during a meeting with Starmer, the head of the White House softened his position.
Journalists asked the US President if he still thinks Zelensky is a “dictator.”
“I said that? I don't believe I would say that,” Trump responded, surprised.
At the same time, Trump, on the contrary, expressed respect for his Ukrainian colleague and noted the courage of the Ukrainians.
” We're going to have a very serious, good meeting at 11:00 (18:00 Kyiv time) , I hope so. I think we're going to get a lot done… I respect President Zelensky, the Ukrainians fought very bravely. We provided a huge amount of equipment, I hope it was useful,” Trump said.
Another important aspect is that Zelensky will meet Trump before Putin. The Ukrainian leader said yesterday that he considers this a “good signal.”
Zelensky said that during his visit to Washington he would talk to Trump about more than just the minerals agreement. He emphasized that he wanted to get an honest answer to whether Ukraine could count on support from the United States, and that this was a key issue for him.
He also said he wanted to know whether Ukraine could use frozen Russian assets to buy weapons and whether Trump planned to lift sanctions on Moscow.
Let us recall that yesterday BFMTV, citing a French diplomatic source, reported that the White House allegedly asked the Ukrainian leader not to come to the United States to meet with President Trump, but changed his mind after Paris intervened.
“Volodymyr Zelensky called Emmanuel Macron, who in turn contacted Donald Trump, asking him to receive his colleague and adding that he would vouch for him. Ultimately, Donald Trump agreed, announcing on Wednesday that he would receive the Ukrainian leader at the White House,” the media outlet said.
Signing an agreement with the USA
During Zelensky's visit to Washington, a framework agreement on subsoil resources between Ukraine and the United States is expected to be signed. A signing ceremony is expected with the participation of the presidents of both countries.
The document from Ukraine will be signed by the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko or Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybiha.
Earlier, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the main points of the agreement had already been approved, and all that remained was the signing of the document.
In turn, the Ukrainian government was told that the document was called “Agreement on the Establishment of Rules and Conditions for the Investment Fund for the Restoration of Ukraine.” Among the important things is that the agreement removed the US's first-priority options regarding their 100% ownership of the investment fund and the amount of 500 billion. Ukraine and the United States will jointly manage the fund. As Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal noted, the agreement contains six key points :
- Ukrainian mineral resources and mineral wealth remain Ukrainian, they are not transferred to the ownership of the United States or anyone else.
- Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from its natural resource assets to the Fund;
- The United States will make contributions to the Fund in the form of funds, financial instruments, and other assets that are critical to the recovery of Ukraine;
- the funds collected by the Fund will be invested exclusively in projects to restore Ukraine;
- The agreement takes into account Ukraine’s obligations within the framework of the European integration process.
As the President of Ukraine noted earlier, this is only a preliminary agreement with the United States, but the next one will involve complex work and the document will have mandatory ratification in the Ukrainian parliament.
The new agreement that Ukraine is negotiating with the US should clarify control issues and also provide for expanded security guarantees, The Economist wrote.
For more details on what rare earth metals are, how the idea for the deal came about, and what Trump was unhappy about, read a separate article by RBC-Ukraine.
The following publications were used in preparing this material: CNN, FlightAware, Sky News, The Hill.
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