U.S. President Donald Trump said on February 21 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin will have to "get together" to end the nearly three-year-old war in Ukraine.
"I think that President Putin and President Zelenskyy are going to have to get together. Because you know what? We want to stop killing millions of people," Trump told reporters at the White House after swearing in Howard Lutnick as commerce secretary.
“I think we have a chance to get the deal done. I had to make sure that Russia wanted to do it,” referring to a meeting on the war in Ukraine this week between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Trump also said he would not go to Moscow for the May 9 Victory Day events marking the anniversary of the end of World War II and said the United States was close to signing a minerals deal with Ukraine.
“I think we are pretty close I think they want it,” Trump said. “It’s significant. It’s a big deal,” he added.
Three anonymous sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that while pursuing an agreement on critical minerals, Washington has also raised the possibility of cutting Ukraine's access to Elon Musk's Starlink satellite Internet system.
Darya Kalenyuk, an executive director of Kyiv's Anti-Corruption Action Center, told RFE/RL that the system is vital for Ukraine's defense.
"It provides an Internet connection at the frontline [...] it is very hard to fight without having access to Starlink," Kalenyuk said.
Ukraine has deposits of 117 of the 120 most widely used minerals and metals in the world. Access to these resources could be worth trillions in total.
Trump has been pushing for a deal to end the war in Ukraine soon and held separate calls this week with both leaders.
Zelenskyy referred to the minerals deal in his evening address, saying he hoped for a fair result.
"This is an agreement that can add value to our relationship, and the main thing is to work out the details so that it can work," he said two days after Trump sharply criticized Zelenskyy, calling him a "dictator" who risks losing his country if he does not "move fast."
In his evening address, Zelenskyy said he spoke by phone on February 21 with the leaders of several European countries.
"Europe must and can do much more to ensure that peace is actually achieved,” he said after calls with the leaders of Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Luxembourg, Slovenia, and Croatia.
He said it would be possible to achieve an end to the war with Russia since Ukraine and its partners in Europe have "clear proposals."
"On this basis we can ensure the implementation of a European strategy, and it is important that this is done together with America," he said.
