Washington: A week ago Donald Trump branded Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. On Friday he will host the Ukrainian president at the White House and sign a deal granting Washington access to Ukraine’s rare minerals.
The extraordinary turnaround caps a week of frantic international diplomacy centered on Washington, as Kyiv seeks to shore up support despite Trump’s recent pivot toward Russia.
Trump upended years of US policy on Ukraine two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war — without Kyiv.
He also alarmed allies as he appeared to turn on Zelensky, berating him as a “dictator without elections” and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
But Trump’s tone has softened in recent days after visits by French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
“I have a lot of respect for him,” Trump said of Zelensky on Thursday. “We’re going to get along really well.”
Trump also backtracked on the “dictator” broadside he launched on social media at Zelensky last week — a jibe he had previously refused to retract even as he declined to call Putin a dictator too.
“Did I say that? I can’t believe I said that,” Trump responded when asked about the Zelensky comment by journalists during a meeting with Starmer.
The dictator outburst was sparked in particular by Zelensky’s initial rejection of the deal to give Washington preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources, including oil, gas and rare earth metals.
Zelensky demanded US security guarantees as part of any deal but Trump has refused to give any commitments.
’Dig, dig, digging’
Trump, a billionaire real estate tycoon, insisted the deal was necessary for Washington to recoup the billions of dollars it has given Ukraine in military and other aid.
Finally, Zelensky relented and agreed to come to the White House to sign it.
The deal would give the United States a share in much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
“We’ll be dig, dig, digging” for Ukraine’s resources, Trump told reporters Thursday.
Few details of the minerals deal have emerged. Zelensky told reporters this week that it would act as framework for broader deals.
Further discussions between US and Ukrainian officials would determine the nature of security guarantees for Ukraine and the exact sums of money at stake in the accord, he said.
But Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to any guarantees.
Britain and France have both offered peacekeepers in the event of a deal to end the Ukraine war but say there must be a US “backstop” — including American intelligence and possibly air power.
The US president told Starmer Thursday he was “open to many things” in terms of security guarantees but that he wanted to get a Russia-Ukraine deal in place first.
Trump added that there had been a “lot of progress” toward a deal but then added: “It’ll either be fairly soon or it won’t be at all.”
US and Russian officials met on Thursday in Istanbul in a new round of talks.
Putin and Trump said after their February 12 phone call that they had agreed to meet personally — but they have not finalized any meeting yet.
Zelensky, Trump to sign minerals deal at White House
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Zelensky, Trump to sign minerals deal at White House
- Trump upended years of US policy on Ukraine two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war
US will respond to Rwanda’s violation of peace pact, says Rubio
- Waltz told the Security Council meeting that the US “is deeply concerned and increasingly disappointed” by this resurgence of violence
WASHINGTON: Top US diplomat Marco Rubio said on Saturday that Rwanda had clearly violated the peace agreement it signed with the Democratic Republic of Congo in Washington last week and vowed unspecified “action” in response.
The Rwandan-backed M23 armed group advanced in eastern DRC and seized the key border city of Uvira, just days after the leaders signed the “Washington Accords” on Dec. 4.
“Rwanda’s actions in eastern DRC are a clear violation of the Washington Accords, and the US will take action to ensure promises made to the President are kept,” Secretary of State Rubio wrote on X.
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UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned the new offensive ‘has revived the specter of a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences.’
The capture of Uvira, along the border with Burundi, has raised fears that the conflict could escalate into a regional war.
As part of an offensive launched at the beginning of December in South Kivu province, the armed group’s takeover follows its earlier this year capture of Goma and Bukavu, other major cities in the DRC’s mineral-rich east.
On Friday, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz accused Rwanda of “leading the region toward more instability and toward war.”
“The Rwandan defense forces have provided materiel, logistics, and training support to M23 as well as fighting alongside M23 in DRC with roughly 5,000 to 7,000 troops,” not including possible reinforcements during the latest offensive, Waltz told the UN Security Council.
The Rwandan firepower has included surface-to-air missiles, drones, and artillery, he added.
Since taking up arms again in 2021, the M23 has seized swaths of territory, displacing tens of thousands and leading to a spiraling humanitarian crisis.
Earlier this month, UN experts said Rwanda’s army and the M23 had carried out summary executions and forced mass displacements of people in the region.
Waltz told the Security Council meeting that the US “is deeply concerned and increasingly disappointed” by this resurgence of violence.
The envoy denounced “the scale and sophistication” of Rwanda’s involvement in eastern DRC.
UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix warned the new offensive “has revived the specter of a regional conflagration with incalculable consequences.”
“Recent developments pose a serious risk of the progressive fragmentation of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly its eastern part,” he said.
Burundi on Friday accused Rwanda of bombing its territory, and its ambassador, Zephyrin Maniratanga, told the council it “reserves the right to use self-defense.”
He warned that if the attacks continue, it would be extremely difficult to avoid an escalation between the two African countries.
“Rwanda is not waging war against the Republic of Burundi and has no intention of doing that,” Ambassador Martin Ngoga said.
Meanwhile, Congolese Foreign Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner criticized the Security Council for its “lack of action” and called for sanctions against Rwanda.
Despite a resolution adopted in February demanding the withdrawal of Rwandan troops and a ceasefire, “the situation is undeniable: another city has fallen, a parallel administration has consolidated itself, thousands more families have fled, and others have been killed, raped, and terrorized,” she said.
