Trump says Ukraine minerals deal to be “signed soon” - Reuters

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that a revenue-sharing critical minerals deal with Ukraine will be “signed soon”, according to Reuters.Speaking to reporters gathered at the White House ahead of his Cabinet meeting, Trump confirmed that a deal is close to being signed, adding that the two sides are also discussing American ownership of Ukrainian power plants, Reuters reports.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said last week that the two sides “only talked about one power plant, which is under Russian occupation”, referring to Zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power station in Europe.However, The Guardian has reported that both Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin would not be in favor, and the idea of US ownership of the nuclear plant, which is currently in cold shutdown, “is not realistic.”According to the UK-based paper, experts in Ukraine believe Trump’s interest in Zaporizhzhia could be linked to securing cheap energy to power the mining and processing plants as part of the rare earths deal.Trump’s comments on Monday follow his recent remarks that efforts to achieve a peace deal for the country were going “pretty well” after a new round of talks with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.“We’re doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine,” the US President said during an event at the White House last week.On Sunday, a US delegation met with officials from both Russia and Ukraine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The talks have focused mostly on a Black Sea ceasefire, but Trump said “other issues are coming up” as he pushes for a halt to the war in Ukraine, Reuters further reports.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com