U.S. President Donald Trump stated on Thursday, March 20, that the United States will soon sign an agreement with Ukraine regarding minerals and natural resources, IPN reports.

"We are doing very well regarding Ukraine and Russia. One of the things we are working on is signing a very important agreement with Ukraine on rare earth minerals very soon. We hope to save thousands of lives each week. That’s what this is about. People are dying so needlessly, and I think we will succeed," said Donald Trump.

Kyiv and Washington announced earlier this month that they had agreed to finalize an agreement as soon as possible regarding Ukraine’s mineral resources, which Trump sees as a way to reimburse U.S. expenditures on aid provided to Kyiv.

Trump and Zelensky agreed during a phone conversation on Wednesday to work together toward ending the war in Ukraine.

However, it was unclear whether the terms of the agreement had changed. The previous version of the deal did not include the security guarantees Ukraine had requested but granted the U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources.

The previous agreement stipulated that the Ukrainian government would contribute 50% of the revenues generated from state-owned natural resources to a fund jointly managed by the U.S. and Ukraine for reconstruction investments. 

When asked by journalists how the current version of the agreement differs from the previous one, a U.S. official said it was "more detailed and comprehensive" but declined to provide further details. Ukrainian authorities have not yet responded to the statement.

Source: TheGazzete.com