White House: President Trump to meet with Russian and Ukrainian counterparts

“We expect those meetings to take place very soon, particularly the meeting with President Zelensky,” she said.

The White House press secretary noted that Trump wants the rare earth metals deal between Kiev and Washington to be signed. “He expects President Zelensky to sign it. That’s entirely reasonable, given what the American taxpayer has done for Ukraine. Without the American people, Ukraine would probably not be a country. And President Trump understands that, and he’s giving the American people what they deserve,” Leavitt added.

In early February, President Trump said that Washington was interested in purchasing rare earth metals from Ukraine. Later, Ukrainian leader Zelensky expressed his readiness to reach an agreement and suggested that the outcome of negotiations on this issue could be determined at the Munich Security Conference, which will take place from February 14 to 16. However, on February 14 in Munich, the Kiev government rejected the US administration's plan, according to which the US would help Ukraine in exchange for ownership of 50% of Ukraine's rare earth metals. At the same time, Mr. Zelensky stressed that there were no security guarantees in the proposed deal. Kiev said that it was working on a counter-proposal.

On February 21, US national security adviser Mike Waltz said that Mr. Zelensky would soon sign an agreement with Washington. Later, sources in Mr. Zelensky's office told Ukrainian media that the document still needed to be completed, while President Zelensky himself said at a press conference on February 23 that he "did not want to sign" the agreement with the United States because it could cost 10 generations of Ukrainians.