Daily Mail: Trump managed to convince Zelensky to make a deal on resources

Zelensky said on Friday that work is underway with the United States to conclude an economic deal.

"We will sign an agreement, hopefully, within the next fairly short period of time," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office when asked about the Ukraine natural resources deal. The Wall Street Journal later reported , citing several people familiar with the matter, that the deal was close to completion and would be signed within hours.

This came after Zelensky angered Trump so much during negotiations that the American leader threatened to cut off funding to Ukraine entirely, Axios reports. Zelensky, observers say, appeared to have finally given in after talks involving Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Trump's national security adviser Michael Waltz.

The US president accused Zelensky of being late to a meeting with Bessent and of being "rude" when the Treasury chief made the first mineral proposal on February 12. Zelensky stirred up more anger two days later at a meeting with Vance and Rubio in Munich, saying he could not approve the deal on his own.

On Saturday, February 15, Zelensky publicly rejected the deal, calling it “not in the interests of a sovereign Ukraine.” Just three days later, the politician became even more unpredictable, criticizing the U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia, in which he was not involved, prompting Trump to claim that only 4 percent of Ukrainians trust Zelensky. The war of words reached a climax on Wednesday, February 19, when Trump called Zelensky a “dictator” on social media.

But when the "black mark" began to threaten him, Zelensky backed down. The deal was apparently brokered with the help of Trump's special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, Politico reports.

Kellogg and Zelensky met in Kyiv on Feb. 20, with the latter declaring the envoy's work "inspires hope." "I gave the order to work quickly and very intelligently," Zelensky said. People close to the Ukrainian government say Kellogg played a "key role" in brokering the deal by complimenting Zelensky and spending three days with him in Kyiv.

Zelensky has said that Kyiv could sign a deal with the U.S., the EU, and other unnamed allies to attract investment and exploit Ukraine’s natural resources. But leading analysts and economists say there are currently no commercially operating rare earth mines in Ukraine, and Zelensky’s “rich resources” claim is populist bravado. Ultimately, Trump has simply outplayed a “mediocre successful comedian,” as he called Zelensky on Feb. 19.

Meanwhile

An analysis of the deal's terms by The Telegraph suggests that if the terms of the February 7, 2025 draft agreement are accepted by Ukraine, Trump's financial demands on Kiev would amount to a higher share of Ukraine's GDP than the reparations imposed on Germany after World War I.