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UK prime minister has arrived in the White House to meet Donald Trump for crunch talks on US support for Ukraine
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Donald Trump has vowed to begin “dig, dig, digging” for minerals in Ukraine after a “historic” minerals deal is signed between Washington and Kyiv.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will meet Mr Trump in the White House tomorrow to discuss the deal and a potential settlement in the war with Russia.
“I think it’s going to be great for Ukraine. We’re going to be at the site, and we’ll be digging. We’ll be dig, dig, digging,” Mr Trump said of the minerals deal, which will see the US and Ukraine jointly develop mineral resources in the country.
“The American taxpayers will now effectively be reimbursed for the money and hundreds of billions of dollars poured into helping Ukraine defend itself,” he added.
Speaking during a press conference with British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer, the president also heaped praise on Mr Zelensky – despite branding him a “dictator” during an unhinged Truth Social rant just last week.
“We’re going to get along really well,” Mr Trump said on Thursday. “We have a lot of respect, I have a lot of respect for him.
“We’ve given them a lot of equipment and a lot of money, but they have fought very bravely, no matter how you figure, they have really fought,” he added.
A Ukrainian restaurateur who employs refugees in her west London bistro who escaped the war torn eastern European country invaded by Russia has banned Donald Trump from entering her establishment.
Olga Tsybytovska found herself stranded in London while on holiday from her native Ukraine as Vladimir Putin’s forces invaded the country in February 2022.
She poured her energies into fundraisers and humanitarian efforts to help Ukrainians before opening Mriya Neo Bistro, nestled in well-heeled South Kensington, with her partner Yurii Kovryzhenko.
As well as the pressures of opening an eatery in one of the gastronomic capitals of the world, Ms Tsybytovska has the daily worry for her family who are in Dnipro.
“It has been three years of crippling anxiety”, Ms Tsybytovska told The Independent as Ukraine’s fourth largest city has been the subject of an intense bombing campaign by Putin’s army.
Barney Davis reports:
Vladimir Putin wants sovereignty not territory, a former leader of the Conservative Party has warned – as he argued that Donald Trump is making a “completely wrong judgement” if he believes otherwise.
Addressing the House of Commons in a debate on Ukraine, Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “The idea that just meeting Putin’s demand for territory – that he may have got or not – at the moment somehow will appease him and will satisfy his requirements is, I think, a completely wrong judgement.
“I noticed in a telephone call between President Trump and Putin this is what President Trump said was important. The truth is Putin is an ex-KGB man. Once KGB, always KGB. He’s not interested in territory, he’s interested in sovereignty.”
He added: “What we have to get lined up in here is the real nature of what Putin wants, and it’s not territory, it’s sovereignty.
“He wants to recreate and has always wanted to recreate the full borders of the old Soviet Union in a greater Russia, we know that. And Ukraine isn’t about 20 per cent of their territory, for him it’s all of Ukraine.
“So you have a peace deal which isn’t stable, he will be back. He’ll build up his armed forces, which he can do quite quickly now with the support of people like North Korea, and he will be back in double quick time.”
Ukraine has agreed to a rare earth minerals deal with the US in a bid to secure support to end the war after the Trump administration dropped some of its toughest demands.
As a central point of peace negotiations, the US had been pushing for a deal that would grant it half of Ukraine’s revenues from critical minerals, oil, gas, and stakes in key infrastructure, such as ports, through a joint investment fund.
Below, The Independent looks at what could be included in the deal and why it is being struck.
Discussing the possibility of US troops involved in peacekeeping in Ukraine, Mr Trump said the countries “have to make a deal first”.
“I think we’re very well advanced. I think Russia has been acting very well,” he said.
“I think we’re very well advanced on a deal, but we have not made a deal yet. So I don’t like to talk about peacekeeping until we have a deal,” he added.
“I like to get things done. I don’t want to give it the bad luck sign. We don’t want to do that.”
Donald Trump has again backtracked on his previous comments about Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky.
Just last week, the US president described Mr Zelensky as a “dictator” and claimed he was deeply unpopular.
But during a press conference alongside Sir Keir Starmer today, he said he has a “lot of respect” for the Ukrainian president, who is travelling to Washington to meet him tomorrow.
“We’re going to get along really well,” Mr Trump said.
“We have a lot of respect, I have a lot of respect for him. We’ve given them a lot of equipment and a lot of money, but they have fought very bravely, no matter how you figure, they have really fought,” he added.
“Somebody has to use that equipment, and they have been very brave in that sense.”
Donald Trump has confirmed he supports Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which holds that an attack on one country in the alliance should be treated as an attack on all.
“I support it. I don’t think we’re going to have any reason for it,” Mr Trump said.
“I think we’re going to have a very successful peace, and I think it’s going to be a long, lasting peace.”
Sir Keir Starmer has emphasised to Donald Trump that putting boots on the ground and planes in the air to support peacekeeping efforts is the “only way that peace will last”.
Speaking in the press conference with Mr Trump, he said: “We have to win the peace, and that’s what we must do now, because it can’t be peace that rewards the aggressor or that gives encouragement to regimes like Iran.
“I’ve discussed a plan today to reach a peace that is tough and fair… to stop Putin coming back from war,” Sir Keir added.
“I am working closely with other European leaders on this, and I am clear that the UK is ready to put boots on the ground and planes in the air to support a deal, working together with our allies, because that is the only way that peace will last, Mr. President.”
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