LONDON: Ukraine is ready to sign a minerals deal with the United States, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told UK media on Sunday (Mar 2).
“The agreement that’s on the table will be signed if the parties are ready,” he told a late-night huddle with some UK media after a landmark summit in London.
The deal, which was supposed to be a step towards helping to end the conflict in Ukraine, fell through on Friday after a televised Oval Office clash with US President Donald Trump.
“It is our policy to continue what happened in the past, we’re constructive,” Zelenskyy said, quoted by the BBC.
“If we agreed to sign the minerals deal, we’re ready to sign it.”
Zelenskyy had travelled to Washington for a full White House visit on Friday to sign a US-Ukrainian deal for the joint exploitation of Ukraine’s vast mineral resources, as part of a post-war recovery in a US-brokered peace deal.
But in their Oval Office meeting, Trump berated Zelenskyy, telling him to be more “thankful” for US support in the three-year war and that without US assistance Ukraine would have been conquered by Russia.
