Ukraine “can be Russian one day,” says Trump, while the United States increases the pressure

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, suggested that Ukraine could lose his sovereignty to Russia, and said he wanted compensation for the help Washington had provided to Ukraine.

“(Ukraine) can reach an agreement. They may not reach an agreement. They can be Russians someday, or they may not be Russians someday. But we will have all this money in (Ukraine) and I say that I want to return” Trump said in Fox’s news interview Launched on Monday.

The president also said that the United States had “essentially agreed” an agreement with Ukraine that would see Washington receive rare and mineral resources, which are used predominantly in electronics, in exchange for continuous support.

“I told them that I want the equivalent of rare earth (minerals) as $ 500 billion, and that they have essentially agreed to do so,” Trump told Fox News.

Ukraine has not publicly commented on the value of any potential mineral agreement with the United States, although President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared last week that it was Ready to “make an agreement” with the United States on minerals in exchange for help. CNBC has communicated with the Zelenskyy office to comment.

The Ukrainian leader is aware that Trump and the senior foreign defense officials and defense want to end their war, and that they seek to make an agreement with Moscow for that to happen.

That position has baffled Ukraine, providing a sense of urgency to the need for kyiv to seem willing to negotiate and be susceptible to Washington’s proposals on a peace agreement.

Amid the perceived tiredness of his key ally and with the third anniversary of the Invasion of Russia of Ukraine that is quickly approaching on February 24, kyiv’s leadership has said that he is willing to participate in peace talks, but has demanded guarantees security as part of any peace agreement.

The United States Department of State says that the United States So far it has provided Ukraine $ 65.9 billion in military assistance And thousands of millions in financial and humanitarian aid, since Russia launched its invasion in 2022. The EU says its general military support to Ukraine from the beginning of the war It is located at 48.3 billion euros ($ 49.8 billion).

The increasingly tense issue of continuous support to Ukraine occupies a central place this week, with senior US officials, including vice president JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy on Ukraine and Russia, traveling To Europe for an arrow of high profile meetings.

The first of these meetings will be the “Ukraine Defense Contact Group” (UDCG) in Brussels on Wednesday, during which it is widely expected that the United States delegation asks the European allies to assume more than the financial responsibility of the financial responsibility of Support Ukraine.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told NBC News’ ‘Meet the Press’ On Sunday, US officials would use the UDCG meeting to follow an agreement with kyiv regarding help and push European partners to assume more responsibility for the future of Ukraine.

“We need to recover those costs and that will be an association with the Ukrainians in terms of their natural resources and their oil and gas and also buy ours,” Waltz said Sunday.

“These conversations are going to happen this week. And I think that a underlying principle here is that Europeans have to possess this conflict in the future. President Trump will end it. And then, in terms of security guarantees, that is directly in progress Be with Europeans. “

In a clear sign that the United States wants to step back its leadership role in Ukraine, it is the United Kingdom who is calling UCDG. The Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegesh, attends the event, but this will mark the first time in the last three years that the head of his position has not chaired the group.

The Pentagon said In a statement Before the UDCG meeting that Hegseth “will be involved with NATO allies and partners to discuss the need to boost ally defense spending, increase European leadership and expand the capacity of the industrial defense base on both sides of the Atlantic ”

Hegesh “will reiterate the commitment of President Trump for a diplomatic purpose of the war in Ukraine as quickly as possible. He will also highlight the need for greater European leadership in security assistance to Ukraine.”

CNBC asked the Pentagon to make more comments, but the Department of Defense would not be generated on what US officials could demand from their European counterparts this week. However, a Pentagon spokesman told CNBC that important policies advertisements were not expected.