- Vice President JD Vance and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will be meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
- President Donald Trump vowed to end the war in Ukraine as a part of his 2024 campaign.
- Trump is interested in exchanging aid for Ukraine's valuable minerals.
President Donald Trump is sending Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Vice President JD Vance will also be meeting with Zelenskyy later this week.
The timing of Bessent’s trip to meet with Zelenskyy is unclear. Vance will be meeting with the Ukrainian president on Friday while the two are at the Munich Security Conference, per The Hill.
“I am sending Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky. This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction. The U.S. has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show. WHEN AMERICA IS STRONG, THE WORLD IS AT PEACE,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
As part of Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, he vowed to end the war between Ukraine and Russia.
A potential deal to be made with Ukraine
Trump has made it clear he is open to giving more weapons to Ukraine in exchange for some of the country’s mineral resources. In a Fox News Interview on Monday, the president said that Ukraine has lots of valuable resources, including “rare earth,” gas and oil, and other resources, per The Wall Street Journal.
“They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re going to have all this money in there and I say, I want it back,” he said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Ukraine’s supply of lithium and titanium reserves are estimated to be one of Europe’s largest. The country also has substantial amounts of cobalt and nickel, which are vital for the defense industry’s high-performance batteries and aerospace superalloys.
Trump said he wants the U.S. to receive roughly $500 billion in rare earth minerals from Ukraine.
Zelenskyy and Ukraine are open to exchanging the resources for aid in the war, per The Wall Street Journal.
The problem with this potential deal is that many of the minerals the U.S. is most interested in are in areas currently under Russian occupation or threatened by the advance of Russian forces. Gaining access to some of these desired resources could depend on Ukraine having success on the battlefield in the eastern part of the country.
Trump says he’s in contact with Russia
Recently, Trump indicated that he had been in touch with Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president. But, he would not open up on how often he has spoken with the foreign president since taking office in January, per The Wall Street Journal.
“I do believe we’re making progress,” Trump said, according to The Wall Street Journal. “We want to stop the Ukraine-Russia war, and I want to stop it, just because I hate to see all these young people being killed.”