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Kathmandu. US President Donald Trump has expressed his view that Ukraine “could be Russian one day” as his Vice President J.D. Vance prepares to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later this week. Trump discussed the conflict in an interview with broadcaster Fox News aired on Monday, pushing for an end to the nearly three-year war with Russia. “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may or may not be Russian one day,” he said.
He has also stressed the need for a return on US aid to Ukraine, suggesting trade for rare minerals such as Kyiv’s natural resources. “We’ll have all this money there and I say I need it back, and I told them I need the equivalent of five trillion dollars worth of rare minerals,” Trump said, “and they’ve essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel like fools.” Trump also confirmed on Monday that he would soon send his special envoy, Keith Kellogg, to Ukraine.
Kellogg has been tasked with drafting proposals to stop the fighting. Trump has been pushing for a quick end to the conflict, while Zelensky has been demanding strong security guarantees from Washington as part of any deal with Russia. Kiev fears that any deal that does not include strong military commitments such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping forces would allow the Kremlin to regroup and re-arm for a new offensive. Zelensky’s spokesman, Serhiy Nikiforov, said the Ukrainian president would meet with Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference this Friday. A source in Zelensky’s office said Kellogg would arrive in Ukraine on February 20. He did not give details of which part of the country he would visit. His visit will come just days before the three-year anniversary of the Russian invasion on February 24. Zelensky called for “real peace and effective security guarantees” for Ukraine on Monday.
“The security of the people, the security of our state, the security of economic relations and, of course, the sustainability of our resources: not only for Ukraine, but for the entire free world,” Zelensky said in a video address posted on social media. “All of this is being decided now.”
Trump has said he wants to end the war but has not presented a detailed proposal to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. Both Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin have already refused to hold direct talks with each other, and there is no basis for a deal between the two sides. Putin has demanded that Ukraine withdraw from the southern and eastern parts of Russia still controlled by Kiev and has called closer ties between Ukraine and NATO unacceptable. Zelensky, meanwhile, has refused to make any territorial concessions to Moscow.
However, he has acknowledged that he may have to rely on diplomatic means to return some territory. Russia says it has annexed five regions of Ukraine – Crimea in 2014 and then Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhia in 2022. However, it does not have full control over these areas. Zelensky said on Monday that arrangements were being made for a meeting with Trump but that the date had not yet been set. Trump said last week that he would “probably” meet with Zelensky in the coming days but ruled out a personal visit to Kiev. Trump told the New York Post that he spoke to Putin by phone to discuss ending the conflict in Ukraine and that the Russian leader told him he wanted to “see people stop dying.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined to confirm or deny the call.
Organizers of the Munich Security Conference (MSC) confirmed on Monday that Zelensky would attend the Feb. 14-16 summit. MSC President Christoph Heusgen told a news conference in Berlin that the U.S. delegation would include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, as well as Kellogg and Vance. He said no representatives of the Russian government would attend. The meeting comes as Russia advances into eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, where it has captured several towns and villages over the past year. Months of Russian bombing have left it largely in ruins.
Moscow has also launched a months-long bombing campaign against Ukrainian energy infrastructure. It says the attacks have targeted facilities that support Kiev’s forces. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s energy minister said the energy sector was “under attack” and that Kiev was “immediately implementing emergency power supply restrictions” to “minimize the potential consequences.”
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