Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to visit the White House on Friday as Kyiv and the Trump administration work to finalize an agreement on critical minerals.
President Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that he heard Zelensky was visiting on Friday, “and certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to.”
Trump a day earlier had signaled Zelensky could be in Washington this week or next week to sign off on a critical minerals deal between the two countries.
The Trump administration has been involved in talks with Ukraine about gaining access to the country’s critical minerals amid talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. officials have suggested the deal would benefit Ukraine because it would create a greater incentive for the U.S. to provide security guarantees for Kyiv.
The Associated Press reported that Ukrainian officials said they had the framework of a deal in place with the U.S.
Ukrainian officials say Kyiv has agreed on a framework for an economic deal with US that they hope will keep aid coming.
“Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday.
Monday marked three years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine after amassing troops on the border and demanding a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. The invasion took place nearly a decade after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.
Trump has become increasingly critical of Zelensky as he pushes for an end to the war. Trump last week raised eyebrows when he called Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” claimed he was doing a “terrible job” and suggested he was responsible for the start of the war.
“I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you,” Trump said Friday. “He makes it very hard to make deals.”
