Insider: US and Ukraine ready to sign mineral agreement

The Trump administration plans to sign a mineral agreement with Ukraine, despite a heated meeting at the White House last Friday that led to Ukrainian President Zelensky being "ushered out" of the White House. Several sources revealed this on Tuesday. According to sources, Trump has told his advisors that he wants to announce the agreement during his speech to Congress on Tuesday evening. However, the agreement has not been officially signed yet and there may still be uncertainties in the future. The White House did not provide an immediate response to this, and the Ukrainian President's office as well as the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comments. The agreement was originally scheduled to be signed last Friday, but it was temporarily postponed due to a heated dispute between Trump and Zelensky during the meeting. Zelensky's main purpose for visiting the US this time was to sign this mineral agreement. However, during the meeting, Trump and Vice President Pence harshly criticized Zelensky, believing that he should not request more assistance from the US media and should first express gratitude for American support. Trump told Zelensky during the meeting, "You are gambling with World War III." According to a source, despite the unpleasant ending to last Friday's meeting, US officials have still been in communication with Ukrainian officials recently, hoping to facilitate the signing of the agreement and urging Zelensky's advisors to persuade him to publicly apologize to Trump to ease the tension between both sides. On Tuesday, Zelensky posted on the social platform X, stating that Ukraine is still willing to sign the agreement and described the previous meeting as "regrettable." "Our meeting at the White House in Washington did not go as planned," Zelensky wrote in the post, "Ukraine is ready to return to the negotiating table at any time to achieve lasting peace as soon as possible." It is currently unclear whether the agreement has been adjusted. According to the previous agreement, it did not include specific security assurances for Ukraine, but allowed the US to benefit from Ukraine's natural resources. Additionally, the agreement stipulated that 50% of any future monetized revenue from Ukraine's state-owned natural resources would be deposited into a reconstruction investment fund jointly managed by the US and Ukraine. Despite the tensions between the two parties, Trump told reporters on Monday that the US government is still willing to push for the signing of the agreement, but Ukraine should show more gratitude. "The US has always stood by Ukraine," Trump said, "We have provided more assistance than Europe, and in fact, Europe should be providing more support than us."