US President Donald Trump has said Volodymyr Zelenskyy “will have to make compromises” as he greeted his Ukrainian counterpart at the White House for talks on ending the conflict with Russia.
However, Trump added that Ukraine “will not go back to fighting” if a peace deal is struck, according to early media reports from their meeting.
Zelenskyy will use his visit to try to secure a seat at the negotiating table. Trump has blindsided Kyiv and other European capitals by launching direct talks with Putin over ending the conflict.
The US president claimed on Friday that he is “in the middle” of Russia and Ukraine.
The leaders are also set to sign a minerals deal that would set up a joint US-Ukrainian “investment fund” that would receive 50 per cent of all revenues from the “future monetisation” of natural resources owned by Kyiv.
The text lacks explicit US security guarantees that Zelenskyy had sought, but on Thursday Trump said the presence of American workers and economic interests in Ukraine would be a sufficient deterrent to possible Russian aggression.
Ukrainian officials were able to persuade the US to strip out some of its most onerous provisions, including demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue.
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