Trump says he expects Ukraine to sign critical minerals deal soon

By Nandita Bose and Steve Holland

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump said on Friday he expects Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sign a minerals agreement with the United States soon as part of efforts to end the Ukraine war.

"We're signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about a deal for Ukraine's minerals.

Zelenskiy said separately that Ukrainian and U.S. teams were working on a draft agreement. "I am hoping for ... a fair result," he said in a video address on Friday after sharp exchanges between the two leaders.

Trump denounced Zelenskiy as a "dictator" on Wednesday and warned he had to move quickly to secure peace with Russia, which invaded Ukraine nearly three years ago, or risk losing his country.

The sharp change in tone from the United States, Ukraine's most important backer, has alarmed European officials and stoked fears that Kyiv could be forced into a peace deal that favors Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelenskiy had said Trump was trapped in a "disinformation bubble", but later toned down his statements and said he was hoping for American pragmatism.

Trump said he believes Putin and Zelenskiy "are going to have to get together, because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people."

"That's why I want to see a ceasefire. And I want to get the deal done. I think we have a chance to get the deal done. I had to make sure that Russia wanted to do it," he said.

Zelenskiy on Wednesday rejected U.S. demands for $500 billion in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the United States had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.

Ukraine has valuable deposits of strategic minerals that the U.S. wants. These include uranium, lithium, cobalt, rare earths and more and are used in applications such as batteries, technology and aerospace.

White House national security adviser Mike Waltz told the Conservative Political Action Conference on the outskirts of Washington on Friday: "Here's the bottom line, President Zelenskiy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term."

'THEY DON'T HAVE ANY CARDS'

Speaking at a White House event earlier on Friday, Trump was critical of Zelenskiy while refraining from negative comments about Putin.

"I've had very good talks with Putin, and I've had not such good talks with Ukraine," Trump said. "They don't have any cards, but they're playing tough."

Separately, the United States on Friday proposed a United Nations resolution to mark the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The three-paragraph U.S. draft, seen by Reuters, mourns loss of life during the "Russia-Ukraine conflict" and "implores a swift end to the conflict."

Kyiv and its European allies want their own text to be adopted by the General Assembly on Monday calling for de-escalation, an early cessation of hostilities and peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The German government said on Friday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Zelenskiy agreed in a phone call that Ukraine must have a seat at the table in peace talks.

Polish President Andrzej Duda urged Zelenskiy, whose country borders Ukraine, on Friday to keep up calm and constructive cooperation with Trump, following the U.S. president's criticism of him.

Duda, whose term in office expires this year, was one of Trump's preferred international partners during his 2017-2021 presidency and they have described themselves as friends.

Poland's president is due to meet Trump in Washington on Saturday, Poland's state news agency PAP reported.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, Nandita Bose, Trevor Hunnicutt and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Tom Balmforth in London; Editing by Ros Russell and Cynthia Osterman)