Ukraine’s leader will meet Donald Trump in Washington on Friday, a critical moment for his country, depending on whether he can convince Trump to provide us with some form of our support for Ukraine’s security to resist Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.
During his trip to Washington, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's delegation is expected to be signed with a landmark economic agreement from the United States to fund the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that will closely link the two countries in the coming years.
Although the deal is seen as a step to ending the three-year war, it cites the importance of Ukraine’s security, but it makes a separate agreement to be discussed between the two leaders, which could begin on Friday.
As Ukrainian forces oppose the larger, well-equipped military, slow but steady progress has been made by Kiev’s leaders pushing for potential assurances to secure potential U.S. brokerage peace plans, including ensuring the country’s future security.
Many Ukrainians fear that hastily negotiated peace, especially demanding too much peace on Russia, would allow Moscow to rebuild and consolidate its forces’ future invasions after the current hostilities.
According to the Associated Press's preliminary economic agreement, the United States and Ukraine will establish a co-managed, co-managed investment fund, where Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenue from natural resources to Ukraine, including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.
Once initially signed, a more detailed agreement on the establishment of the fund will be developed.
Republican Trump has made the emerging deal a chance for wartime aid distributed by Kiev as the former US President Joe Biden.
But Zelenskyy remains firm that the specific guarantee of Ukrainian security must be accompanied by any agreement that enables us to access Ukrainian resources. He said Wednesday that the agreement “may be part of future security assurances, but I want to know a broader vision. What is waiting for Ukraine?”
Trump still does not entrust any U.S. security guarantees.
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“I won't provide security guarantees … too much,” Trump told reporters this week. “We will have Europe do that.”
If a truce can be ended, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to send troops on potential peacekeeping missions to ensure that the battle between Ukraine and Russia does not erupt again. The two leaders traveled to Washington this week to discuss potential peacekeeping missions and other concerns about the war with Trump.
White House officials are skeptical that Britain and France can assemble enough troops from all over Europe, at least for the moment to deploy a reliable peacekeeping mission to Kiev.
Senior Trump administration officials said a “consented peaceful settlement” between Russia and Ukraine could adopt a “consented peaceful settlement” until many countries are willing to provide such troops.
Zelenskyy and European officials have no illusions about the US military participating in such missions. However, Starmer and others have tried to prove that the program can only work with the U.S. backend through U.S. air intelligence, surveillance and support, and rapid response coverage in case of a truce loss.
“You created a huge opportunity to reach a historic peace deal – I think it's a deal to be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world,” Starmer told Trump. “That's the prize. But we have to do it right.”
Zelenskyy was vague about what types of security assurances were for his country, and while he continued to advocate for Ukraine's ultimate membership in NATO, he also suggested that a similar security arrangement would be sufficient.
But Trump said on Wednesday that Ukraine “may forget” to join the Western military alliance.
Nevertheless, Zelenskyy's meeting with Trump is the first time since the US leader took office in January and is seen as a diplomatic victory for Ukraine in Kiev. Zelenskyy said on Wednesday that he would be able to meet with Trump in person before Russian President Vladimir Putin “does a good signal.”
Zelenskyy said he hopes to discuss whether the U.S. plans to stop military aid to Ukraine and, if so, whether Kiev can buy weapons directly from the U.S.
He also wondered whether Ukraine could use frozen Russian assets to buy weapons and whether Washington plans to lift sanctions on Moscow.
Fears are that Trump may engage in a peace deal with Russia, and Russia's affairs that are unfavorable to Ukraine have been expanded by his administration's recent premise actions. Trump held a long phone call with Putin, where U.S. officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without invitation to European or Ukrainian leaders – both of which had dramatic rest with previous U.S. policies to isolate Putin’s invasion.
Trump later appeared to be wrongly accusing Ukraine of launching a war and called Zelenskyy a “dictator” because he did not hold elections after his regular term ended last year, although Ukrainian law prohibited elections during martial law.
As Zelenskyy tried to lower the U.S. temperature during Washington, U.S. officials said that if the implementation of the economic agreement would itself provide a measure of security for Ukraine through U.S. investment in its territory.
Trump said Wednesday that the U.S. work on mineral extraction in Ukraine would constitute “automatic security because when we are there, no one will be with our people.”
“For Ukraine, that's a lot, too, because they're taking us there, and we're going to work there,” Trump said. “We're going to be on the land.”
This view echoes the text of the Economic Agreement, which says the United States “supports Ukraine’s efforts to establish security assurances needed to establish lasting peace.”
It continued that Washington “has a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”
Spike reported on Kiev, Ukraine.
