Zelenskyy, Trump discuss work to prepare minerals deal

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump discussed the work to prepare a deal to use Ukrainian rare-earth minerals as they spoke by phone, Report informs via TASS.

"Just spoke with Donald Trump. <...> We discussed our conversation with Scott Bessent and the preparation of our new agreement on security and economic and resource cooperation," he wrote on Telegram.

Zelenskyy added that he expressed readiness to work together at the level of teams from the two countries. He also said Trump informed him about the details of his conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Following a meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier, Zelenskyy said Kyiv had received from Washington a draft deal to use Ukrainian rare-earth resources.

In early February, US President Donald Trump said America is interested in obtaining rare-earth metals from Ukraine. Zelenskyy later said that large deposits of minerals and rare-earth metals being offered to Washington are located in areas outside Kyiv's control. In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was ready to offer Trump Ukrainian minerals and underground gas storage sites in exchange for security guarantees.