Zelensky arrives in Washington to sign natural resources deal with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington ahead of a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, where he is expected to sign a watered down version of a natural resources deal the US has pressured him to sign.

Before crossing the Atlantic, Zelensky made a stopover in Ireland, where he met with Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin at Shannon Airport and discussed “ending the war with a guaranteed peace for Ukraine and all of Europe”.

Zelensky is due to meet with Trump at the White House later on Friday to sign a revised deal on US access to Ukraine’s natural resources, committing the two governments to achieving lasting peace in Ukraine and establishing a Reconstruction Investment Fund to be jointly managed by the two sides.

According to the agreement, the Ukrainian government will contribute 50% of all revenues earned from the future monetisation of all relevant Ukrainian government-owned natural resources, which it defines as “deposits of minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable materials, and other infrastructure relevant to natural resource assets”.

The revised deal offers Kyiv far better conditions than the initial proposal, which was rejected by Zelensky last week, and though the final text does not contain explicit US security guarantees for Ukraine — something the Ukrainian president has been pushing hard for — one of its provisions attests to Washington supporting “Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace”.

Despite a war of words with Zelensky in recent weeks, in which he branded the Ukrainian president a “dictator without elections”, Trump struck a more conciliatory tone during a joint press conference with British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Thursday, claiming that he had a “lot of respect” for Zelensky and that he did not recall labelling him a “dictator”.

While Trump on Thursday further extended the US sanctions on Russia that were imposed following its 2014 annexation of Crimea until 2026, he claimed to enjoy a “very good” relationship with Vladimir Putin and suggested the Russian leader would “keep his word” on any settlement to end the war in Ukraine.