But Trump and Zelensky met again in St Peter’s Basilica on Saturday, without aides, minutes before the Pope’s funeral. Zelensky later said the meeting had the potential to be historic, while the White House said it was productive.
After that encounter, Trump – having previously criticised Zelensky for not having “the cards” to end the war – rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he had complicated peace negotiations last week with his “very bad timing”, when he launched deadly strikes on Kyiv.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko sign the agreement to establish the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. Credit: X/US Treasury
The accord was reached as Trump marked the first 100 days of his current term and is under pressure to secure victories as polls have shown an erosion of his popularity, driven largely by angst over his economic policies. He has also been frustrated in delivering on promises to bring quick solutions to the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza.
The focus will now shift to negotiations over a peace deal. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met Putin in Moscow last week but so far hasn’t been able to secure a lasting ceasefire.
While the US Congress is unlikely to appropriate new money for Ukraine beyond what has already been allocated, it’s important that the US continue intelligence sharing, which is “basically irreplaceable,” Charles Lichfield, the deputy director of the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Centre in Washington, said.
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“Any positive step, anything that keeps the US engaged, is worth having,” Lichfield said.
Bessent said the deal signalled to Russia that Trump was committed to a peace process “centred on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term”.
“President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine,” he said. “And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
For Ukraine, the agreement is seen as key to ensuring its access to future US military aid. Washington has been Ukraine’s single largest military donor since Russia’s 2022 invasion, with aid of more than $US72 billion, according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.
Before the deal was signed, Trump repeated on Wednesday that the US should get something for its aid to Kyiv, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine’s plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals. The US has been seeking access to more than 20 raw materials deemed strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas.
Among them are Ukraine’s deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing, and uranium, which is used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons. Ukraine also has lithium, graphite and manganese, which are used in electric vehicle batteries.
After Kyiv felt the initial US draft of the deal disproportionately favoured American interests, it introduced new provisions aimed at addressing those concerns.
According to Shmyhal, the latest version would establish an equal partnership between the two countries and last for 10 years. Financial contributions to a joint fund would be made in cash, and only new US military aid would count towards the American share.
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Unlike an earlier draft, the deal would not conflict with Ukraine’s path towards European Union membership – a key provision for Kyiv.
The Ukrainian cabinet approved the agreement on Wednesday, empowering Svyrydenko – who flew to Washington to help finalise the deal – to sign it. It still needs to be ratified by the Ukrainian parliament before it can take effect.
In announcing the deal, the US Treasury said the partnership recognised “the significant financial and material support that the people of the United States have provided to the defence of Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion”.
Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling on peace efforts while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land. Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory since Moscow’s forces launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
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Putin backed calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said during his daily conference call with reporters, adding that “before it’s done, it’s necessary to answer a few questions and sort out a few nuances”.
Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of lives and American taxpayer money – a complaint he repeated on Wednesday during his cabinet meeting.
Russia has in effect rejected a US proposal for an immediate and full 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine’s mobilisation effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield, where Russian forces had the upper hand.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year, according to a United Nations report presented this week in New York.
The UN Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first three months of this year, it had verified 2641 civilian casualties in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period last year.
Reuters, Bloomberg
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