During U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s visit to Washington on Thursday, one journalist asked President Trump if he still considers Zelensky a “dictator.”
“Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that. Next question?” Trump replied.
Just last week, Trump had posted to his Truth Social account a scathing rebuke of Zelenksy, including calling him “a Dictator without Elections.”
The reversal in sentiment is right in front of the reported meeting the two leaders are set to have at the White House tomorrow to sign the much-talked-about rare earth minerals deal, paving the way for proposed peace talks and an eventual end to the war in Ukraine.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal has confirmed that a final agreement with D.C. is in place; however, Kyiv is not considering signing a mineral extraction agreement without linking it to security guarantees, writes Do Rzeczy.
Meanwhile, President Zelensky said that the rare earth minerals deal reached with the United States is a “beginning” and a “framework agreement.”
“This agreement can be a great success or simply disappear,” he said, adding that Ukraine must know what it can expect from the U.S. and that he “will ask Donald Trump directly whether he will stop military aid to Ukraine.”
Reports have indicated that the U.S.-Ukraine agreement includes a provision to create a fund to which Ukraine would pay 50 percent of the income from the sale of state mineral resources, including oil and gas. The fund would invest the funds in projects in Ukraine.
