U.S. President Donald Trump announced on Monday that a strategic agreement on rare earth materials with Ukraine is nearing completion.
Speaking after a Cabinet meeting, Trump stated that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had informed him that the deal was almost finalized. “They’ll sign it shortly,” he said.
Trump also repeated his widely disputed claim that the United States is the only country providing direct financial aid to Ukraine, while Europe has only offered loans.
Last week, Trump had already expressed confidence that the agreement would soon be concluded.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky traveled to Washington on Feb. 28 to finalize the deal but left without signing it after a tense encounter with Trump and Vice President JD Vance. The scheduled meeting was canceled, and Zelensky was asked to leave the White House.
Since taking office in January, Trump has tied U.S. financial support for Ukraine—currently in its third year of defending against Russia’s invasion—to American access to Ukraine’s rare earth reserves.
Ukraine’s raw material deposits are strategically valuable, but a significant portion remains under Russian occupation.
