No information was provided about Zelensky’s response to that point, and the Ukrainian leader did not mention it in his account of the conversation.
Nor did either side mention the so-called “minerals deal”, in which the US would exploit Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as payback for previous and ongoing military support.
That deal was supposed to be signed when Zelensky visited Washington at the end of February, but it collapsed after Trump, Zelensky and Vice President J.D. Vance became engaged in a televised blow-up in the Oval Office and Zelensky was kicked out of the White House.
Trump’s current position on the minerals deal was not clear, but White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt indicated it was no longer a pressing issue.
“We have moved beyond the economic minerals deal, we are at a place of peace, we’re at a partial ceasefire and we’re moving towards a full ceasefire and a long-standing peace in this conflict,” she said.
Loading
Both sides characterised Wednesday’s (Thursday AEDT) call as positive, in contrast to the Oval Office disaster. The Ukrainian leader thanked Trump for his past generosity in giving them Javelin missiles and his efforts to end the war and negotiate a peace deal.
Trump “fully briefed” Zelensky on his conversation with Putin from the previous day, Rubio said. Zelensky said Ukrainian and American teams “are ready to meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to continue co-ordinating steps toward peace”.
Ukraine and Russia have theoretically agreed to a limited 30-day ceasefire in which both sides would not strike energy infrastructure, such as oil and gas facilities. However, both countries were accused of breaking that deal within hours, with Ukraine saying power facilities were hit in Slovyansk, and Russian media reporting an oil pumping station was attacked by Ukrainian drones.
The three-year Russia-Ukraine war has brought repeated warnings of dangers to Ukraine’s four nuclear plants, especially at the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine, which is Europe’s biggest and one of the 10 largest in the world.
Loading
The other operational plants are Khmelnytsky and Riven in the country’s west, and the South Ukraine facility.
Chernobyl – the site of the world’s worst civil nuclear catastrophe when one of its four reactors exploded in 1986 – is also in Ukraine, near the capital Kyiv, in the country’s north. That reactor is now enveloped by a protective shelter, known as a sarcophagus, to contain the lingering radiation.
In February, a Russian drone with a high-explosive warhead caused significant damage to the radiation shelter.
