President Donald Trump said he will not make any security guarantees to Ukraine “beyond very much,” as the United States eyes signing a minerals deal with Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Western security guarantees are necessary for a ceasefire in the war with Russia.
When asked during the first Cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday what security guarantees he’s willing to make, Trump responded: “I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much. We’re going to have Europe do that.”
“We’re talking about Europe is the next-door neighbor,” he continued. “But we’re going to make sure everything goes well.”
On the end to the war in Ukraine, Trump said he is confident about being able to reach a deal with Russia that could end the conflict and noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to make concessions, though Trump didn’t go into detail on what those might be.
Senior Russian and U.S. diplomats are expected to hold talks again on Thursday in Istanbul, according to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv earlier on Wednesday that Ukraine has been working on a “preliminary framework” for a minerals-sharing deal with the U.S., but again warned that no agreement can succeed without sufficient Western security guarantees.
“Without future security guarantees, we will not have a real ceasefire,” Zelenskyy said. “And if we don’t have it, nothing will work. Nothing will work.”
Source-ABC
