President Donald Trump says the US will not give Ukraine security guarantees “beyond very much”, as Washington and Kyiv prepare to sign a critical minerals deal on Friday.
“I’m not going to make security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump said at his first cabinet meeting on Wednesday. “We’re going to have Europe do that” because “Europe is the next-door neighbour”.
The US president also confirmed that his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy would come to Washington on Friday to sign the agreement.
Zelenskyy had demanded that clear guarantees of US military backing and security be part of the deal, but a framework agreed this week by both sides did not include an explicit reference to any such support.
Trump also claimed the minerals deal would be worth “probably $350bn” to the US.
This is a developing story
