KYIV — President Trump is set to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House today to sign a preliminary deal to give the U.S. access to Ukraine's critical raw materials in exchange for possible aid in the future.
It's the first face-to-face meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump since Trump's inauguration, and it comes about a week after Trump called Zelenskyy a "dictator" and repeated Kremlin talking points, including suggesting that Ukraine started the war with Russia.
"The significance of this meeting is that it's happening at all," says Serhii Fursa, deputy director of Ukrainian investment firm Dragon Capital, who has been following the minerals deal closely. "I do not think President Zelenskyy will enjoy this trip personally. He just has to do it."
The deal on the table appears to offer no explicit security guarantees, though Zelenskyy says he will push to include them in a final agreement because Ukraine needs protection from Russia. Instead, it broadly outlines the development of a Reconstruction Investment Fund, managed by both countries. The fund would collect and reinvest revenues from Ukrainian natural resources, including deposits of oil and gas as well as rare earth metals and critical minerals, which are used in high-tech devices.
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"We will need the U.S. to continue being our strategic partner," Yurii Sak, an adviser to Ukraine's Ministry of Strategic Industries, told NPR. "So we need to rebuild our country after we end the war, and this agreement is going to work toward that goal."
Zelenskyy rejected earlier versions of the agreement, saying that the terms would have left Ukrainians in debt. He also pushed back on Trump's insistence that the revenue be used to pay back aid Ukraine has already received from the U.S.
"It was a very, very unpleasant offer that looked like colonial-style behavior, like what the Spanish conquistadors offered to the Incas," Fursa said.
In the current framework, he said, the terms are more favorable to Ukraine, with the revenue appearing to go to future investments.
In Kyiv, Ukrainians say they're nervously watching how the Trump-Zelenskyy meeting will unfold.
Anna Kolesnyk, a communications manager in Kyiv, said she worries Trump might get angry at Zelenskyy again and retaliate.
"God help us not to lose a lot," she said, "meaning our territories, our raw materials, or our minds, and to gain as (many) benefits from this meeting."
NPR's Polina Lytvynova contributed reporting from Kyiv.
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