U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine may or may not lose its sovereignty to Russia, adding he wants compensation for the provided U.S. aid regardless of how the war ends, he said in an interview with Fox News published on Feb. 10.
"They (Ukraine) may make a deal. 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 (Ukraine) and I say, I want it back," Trump said in an interview with Fox News host Bret Baier.
The U.S. president has repeatedly pledged to broker a swift peace deal to end the full-scale war nearing its third anniversary, claiming that the conflict would have never happened if he had been in office in 2022.
Following up on his earlier proposition of ensuring the U.S. support for Ukraine in exchange for rare earth minerals, Trump claimed that Kyiv has "essentially agreed" to a deal on a $500 billion resource deal.
"I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth (minerals), and they’ve essentially agreed to do that," the U.S. president said.
Ukraine has already signaled it is open to developing a partnership in resource extraction with the U.S. and other partners in exchange for security guarantees, but details on such a deal remain murky.
In the interview, Trump again claimed that the U.S. had provided more support to Ukraine than European partners, placing Washington's contribution to over $300 billion.
Dominic Culverwell
The U.S. Congress has allocated over $170 billion to Ukraine since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022, which included the provision of over $60 billion worth of military support. President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed last month that less than half of that assistance arrived in Ukraine.
The EU and its member countries have made available $145 billion in financial, military, and humanitarian assistance during the full-scale war.
Despite pledges to broker a deal within 100 days, the Trump administration has provided few details on a possible peace plan. Trump's special peace envoy, Keith Kellogg, who is set to visit Ukraine on Feb. 20, is reportedly preparing several options for a ceasefire deal to be presented to the White House.
Later this week, Zelensky is expected to meet U.S. Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference, as well as Trump in Washington, to discuss the ongoing conflict and a possible resolution.
The U.S. president has also recently revealed he has been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin after planning a face-to-face meeting, ending the diplomatic isolation imposed on the Kremlin's chief by former U.S. President Joe Biden.
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