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Kathmandu. Donald Trump has been showing strange behavior since coming to power in the United States. Just a week ago, Donald Trump called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a ‘dictator’. On Friday, he is welcoming the Ukrainian president to the White House.
Trump, who became president from a business background, has made a U-turn after Ukraine gave him access to its minerals. Trump has forced Ukraine to sign a mineral deal. Ukrainian President Zelensky was alarmed when Trump started supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as he was elected president.
However, Ukraine has sought a guarantee of security from Russia through the mineral deal. But President Trump has kept the path open to obtaining more minerals from both Ukraine and Russia. Meanwhile, President Trump has said Ukraine could one day belong to Russia.
The two presidents are scheduled to sign a deal on Friday that will give Washington access to Ukraine’s rare minerals. The extraordinary turn of events caps a week of intense international diplomacy centered on Washington as Kiev seeks to shore up support despite Trump’s recent tilt toward Russia. Trump reversed years of U.S. policy on Ukraine by speaking to Russian President Vladimir Putin two weeks ago without Kiev to begin talks to end the three-year war.
He has also alarmed allies by calling Zelensky an “unelected dictator” and blaming Ukraine for Russia’s invasion in February 2022. But Trump’s tone has softened in recent days, following 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, adding, “We’re going to get along really well.” Trump also walked back a “dictator” attack he made on social media last week. He had previously refused to retract the sarcasm, and he also refused to call Putin a dictator. “Did I say that? “I don’t believe I said that,” Trump replied when asked by reporters about Zelensky’s comments during his meeting with Starmer.
The dictator’s anger was sparked by Zelensky’s initial rejection of a deal that would have given Washington preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources, particularly oil, gas and rare earth metals. Zelensky had demanded US security guarantees as part of any deal, but Trump has refused to make any commitments.
Billionaire real estate tycoon Trump insisted that the deal was necessary for Washington to get back billions of dollars in military and other aid to Ukraine. Zelensky eventually relented and agreed to come to the White House to sign it.
The deal would give the United States a stake in many of Ukraine’s mineral resources. “We will mine for Ukraine’s resources,” Trump told reporters on Thursday. Few details of the mineral deal have been released. Zelensky told reporters this week that it would serve as a framework for broader agreements. He said further discussions between U.S. and Ukrainian officials would determine the nature of security guarantees for Ukraine and the exact amount of money involved in the deal. 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 have said there must be a U.S. “backstop,” including U.S. intelligence and possibly air power. The US president told Starmer on Thursday that he was “open to a lot of things” regarding security guarantees but that he wanted to reach a Russia-Ukraine deal first.
Trump said there was “a lot of progress” towards a deal. But then he said, “It’s either going to happen very soon or it’s not going to happen at all.” US and Russian officials met in Istanbul on Thursday for a new round of talks. Putin and Trump said they had agreed to meet in person after speaking by phone on February 12, but they have not yet finalized any meeting.
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