Donald Trump says US to sign rare earth mineral deal with Ukraine ‘shortly’

US President Donald Trump said on Thursday the United States will sign a minerals and natural resources deal with Ukraine shortly. He said his efforts to achieve a peace deal for the country were going "pretty well" after his talks this week with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders.

Trump made the comments at a White House event after signing an order to increase US production of critical minerals.

“We're doing very well with regard to Ukraine and Russia. And one of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine,” Trump said.

Trump referred to his separate discussions this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky aimed at ending Russia's war in Ukraine.

Those talks, which fell short of Trump's aim to secure a full 30-day ceasefire, resulted in President Vladimir Putin agreeing to stop Russian attacks on energy infrastructure for 30 days and Ukraine's Zelensky saying he would also accept such a pause.

"We would love to see that (war) come to an end, and I think we're doing pretty well in that regard," Trump said.

“So hopefully we’d save thousands of people a week from dying. That's what it's all about. They're dying so unnecessarily, and I believe we'll get it done.”

Ukraine and the US said this month they had agreed to conclude a comprehensive agreement as soon as possible for developing Ukraine's critical mineral resources. Trump sees this as a means of paying back the United States for its assistance to Kyiv.

The development came days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's meeting with US President Donald Trump ended in a disaster after the two leaders traded verbal blows before the world's media at the White House over the war with Russia.

Russia launched an invasion of Ukraine three years ago and now holds around a fifth of Ukraine's territory. Russia had annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, Reuters reported. Russia has previously ruled out territorial concessions and said Ukraine must withdraw fully from four Ukrainian regions claimed and partly controlled by Russia, according to the Reuters report.

Trump and Zelensky agreed on Wednesday to work together to end Russia's war with Ukraine, in what the White House described as a "fantastic" one-hour phone call, their first conversation since their Oval Office shouting match that resulted in a short-term cutoff in US military aid and intelligence to Kyiv.

It was unclear if the deal has changed. An earlier version did not include the explicit security guarantees Ukraine has sought, but gave the U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine's natural resources.

It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50 percent of monetized amounts for state-owned natural resources to a US-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund.

Asked how the current version of the minerals deal differs from the earlier draft, a senior US official said it was "more detailed and comprehensive," declining to elaborate.

Ukraine's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(With inputs from Reuters)