Zelenskyy: no security guarantee agreed with the US and minerals deal depends on Trump
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a ‘framework’.
Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Zelenskyy said a security guarantee with the US was essential. Speaking to the BBC, he added, “if we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing.”
Key events
Here is a summary of events so far:
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Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a “framework”. Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
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Donald Trump had earlier said Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid in defending against Russia’s full-scale invasion. However, a White House official cast doubt on the Ukrainian president’s purported trip to Washington on Friday. Speaking anonymously to Reuters, the official said “If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense. There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognise a final position, and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.”
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Ukraine’s prime minister Denys Shmyhal said the minerals deal had been agreed, adding the agreement involved the creation of a joint investment fund and security guarantees.
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Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused the UK and France of further fuelling the conflict by suggesting European peacekeeping forces will be placed in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal with Moscow.
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Dozens of dignitaries walked out of Russia’s speech to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday in support of Ukraine, according to a report.
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In Ukraine itself, first responders were pictured working at the site of an overnight Russian attack on Kryukivshchyna on the outskirts of Kyiv.
Dan Sabbagh
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine’s ambassador to London, said that “dictators fear truth” as he spoke at a special service at London’s St Bride’s church to honour the work of journalists who have covered the three-year war in the country.
The former head of the armed forces, one of Ukraine’s most popular public figures, praised the work of the media at an event attended by actor Stephen Fry – and linked their professional activities to his country’s struggle against an autocratic Russia invader.
The Russian attack “isn’t just an act of aggression,” Zaluzhnyi said but “a war against truth. The Kremlin doesn’t want to take on land, it wants to erase identities, change facts and replace reality with lies”.
Journalism was therefore “another battlefield” and the general turned diplomat argued that “reporters, photographers and fixers have become fighters for truth, standing against propaganda” in his speech at a church traditionally associated with journalism.
“Truth matters, today more than ever,” Zaluzhnyi emphasised. “History shows us that dictators fear truth more than weapons,” he said and added, noting that autocrats have always been willing to target journalists in a quest for control
Though Zaluzhnyi’s comments were not overtly political, they served to promote the profile of a figure widely considered to be the most viable challenger to incumbent Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a future presidential election.
Reuters has a quick snap that a spokesperson has said the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas will not be meeting US secretary of state Marco Rubio during her trip to Washington in what might be a snub by the Trump administration. On Monday Kallas said she would be meeting Rubio, while also criticising what she called “the Russian narrative” being “strongly represented” in messages coming from the US.
Ukrainian military said overnight it had attacked Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast and two military airfields in Russian-occupied Crimea.
A White House official has cast doubt on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s purported trip to Washington on Friday. Speaking anonymously to Reuters, the official said “If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn’t finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense. There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognise a final position, and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording.”
Ukrainian troops said on Wednesday they had launched a successful counterattack in the eastern Donetsk region, gaining control over the village of Kotlyne near a key transit artery and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk, Agence France-Presse reports.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces near the rail and mining hub of Pokrovsk is some of the fiercest of the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
“Taking this settlement would have allowed the occupiers to reach the Pokrovsk-Dnipro highway, so the enemy sent significant forces to capture it,” the Ukrainian unit involved in the operation posted on social media.
Russian forces have severed the M04 highway in eastern Ukraine that serves as an essential military logistics route to resupply the embattled front line.
Ukrainian military observers have said that Russian forces gained ostensible control over Kotlyne in January but Moscow has never formally said that they had captured it.
The settlement lies around five kilometres (three miles) from the highway. The Ukrainian 25th separate Sicheslavska airborne brigade claimed to have captured it.
Separately, the Russian defence ministry said its forces had gained control over two more villages in the Kursk region where Ukrainian forces launched a surprise offensive in August last year.
Kyiv hopes to exchange territory under its control in Kursk as part of any talks aimed at ending the fighting.
Vyacheslav Gladkov, governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, has said on the Telegram messaging service that the entire region is under an air alert ahead of a possible Ukrainian missile attack.
More from Zelenskyy and Agence France-Presse is reporting the Ukrainian president said he hoped to travel to Washington on Friday to discuss a natural resources deal and future aid with Donald Trump.
“I would like to have this visit very much,” Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv, saying that the tentative date for the visit to Washington was Friday.
Zelenskky said he planned to ask the US president if he would halt future US aid for Ukraine.
The US-Ukraine minerals deal is part of a broader effort to end the war with Russia and will lay the groundwork for long-term cooperation between Kyiv and Washington, Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna said on Wednesday.
In a written statment she told Reuters:
This agreement signifies our commitment to lasting peace and strong partnership, as well as the US desire to participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Zelenskky said he can’t yet confirm his trip to Washington on Friday, adding that teams are working on it, Reuters reports.
We have more coming to us from Zelenskky.
He told reporters that he wants to discuss with Donald Trump the possibility to use Russia’s frozen assets for mining resources development, weapons purchase and reconstruction, Reuters reports.
More to follow.
Zelenskyy: no security guarantee agreed with the US and minerals deal depends on Trump
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said no security guarantee with the US has been agreed and described the deal between the two countries as a ‘framework’.
Speaking at a press conference earlier today, the Ukrainian president also said the success of an initial minerals agreement with the US will depend on President Trump.
Zelenskyy said a security guarantee with the US was essential. Speaking to the BBC, he added, “if we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing.”
Here are some further quotes from Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov speaking about the unacceptability to Russia of the deployment of European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine in the event of a peace deal. Reuters quotes him saying:
We cannot consider any options. [US president Donald] Trump said that a decision on the deployment of peacekeeping forces would only be possible with the consent of both sides. Apparently referring to us and Ukraine. Nobody has asked us about this.
This approach, which is being imposed by the Europeans, primarily France, but also the British, is aimed at what I just mentioned: to further fuel the conflict and to stop any attempts to calm it down.
Therefore, we cannot get away with such simple technical measures like deploying troops. We need to talk about the root causes. The root causes were the dragging of Ukraine into Nato and the total eradication of the rights of Russians and Russian-speaking people.
Citing the regional governor, Reuters reports that five people have been killed by Russian strikes on Kostyantynivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.
US-Russia talks over diplomatic relations due in Istanbul tomorrow
Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has confirmed that US and Russian diplomats will have high-level talks in Istanbul on Thursday with the aim of improving diplomatic relations between the two nations, particularly with regard to how their embassies work.
During a press briefing in Qatar, Lavrov said the talks would focus on creating better conditions for Russian diplomats in the US and their counterparts in Russia, after a series of rows over staffing levels and embassy properties, which he blamed on Joe Biden’s administration.
Reuters quotes Lavrov saying “Our high-level diplomats, experts, will meet and consider the systemic problems that have accumulated as a result of the illegal activities of the previous administration to create artificial obstacles for the activities of the Russian embassy to which we, naturally, reciprocated and also created uncomfortable conditions for the work of the American embassy in Moscow.”
Lavrov said the progress in diplomatic relations since Donald Trump returned to the White House shows “how quickly and effectively we can move.”
US-Ukraine minerals deal does not contain security guarantee – reports
Reuters is carrying more details of the reported agreement between Ukraine and the US over the extraction of Ukraine’s mineral wealth by the Trump administration.
The news agency reports a source familiar with the contents of the draft agreement said that it does not specify any US security guarantees or continued flow of weapons, but says that the United States wants Ukraine to be “free, sovereign and secure.”
One of the sources familiar with the deal told Reuters that future weapons shipments are still being discussed between Washington and Kyiv
Europe needs a defence fund to help it strengthen its security and increase its deterrence capability, Reuters reports German foreign minister Annalena Baerbock has said.
“It would be an important step to relax the EU’s stability and growth pact so member states can continue to increase their national defence spending,” she said in a statement, adding that this alone would not be sufficient for all countries.
“That is why we need a European defence fund that is up to the challenge,” she added.
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