Zelenskyy arrives in Washington to sign critical minerals deal with Trump

The Ukrainian president is in Washington to reportedly sign an agreement on rare earth minerals with his American counterpart, that will likely become key to ending the three-year-long brutal war.

But there are concerns as to whether the deal will ensure lasting peace in Ukraine.

Our foreign affairs correspondent Bae Eun-ji has the details.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington late Thursday, to hold a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump where they will likely sign a minerals deal that will allow the U.S. to own a large amount of Ukraine's rare earth mineral deposits.

Trump has been framing the deal as a chance for Kyiv to "pay back" Washington, for aid sent under the Biden administration over the past three years.

"We're going to be actually in there digging, digging our hearts out. And hopefully, you know, we need the rare earth and we have some here, but we don't have enough we're our economy is very strong and we need a lot of things that in some cases we don't have here."

And in the meantime, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer also made his way to the White House on Thursday local time, for talks on Ukraine's security.

Starmer positively evaluated Trump's leadership in the Ukraine peace negotiations but stated that history should be on the side of the peacemaker.

"We're focused now on bringing an enduring end to the barbaric war in Ukraine. And that's what we must do now, because it can't be peace that rewards the aggressor. We agree history must be on the side of the peacemaker, not the invader."

Details of the agreement are yet to be made public, but it's widely believed that the agreement does not include security guarantees.

One expert explains the reason why Ukraine is still going ahead with the deal may be because it ensures that there can be some sort of a concrete relationship with the U.S.

"But at the moment, as it stands, this deal is between Kyiv and Washington. So that in itself will please the Ukrainians, and I think that is why they want to go, even if the terms do not look to be particularly financially favorable."

Kyiv estimates that about 5-percent of the world's critical raw materials are in Ukraine --including titanium, titanium, graphite, lithium, and uranium --which could be used to produce weapons, electronics, and other products vital in the modern world.

Another expert says the minerals that Ukraine has will become more and more expensive as the world economy slows down, but says it's very difficult to envision lasting peace with aggressive leaders like Trump or Putin, who only act in a way they think is in their best interests.

"It makes Ukraine the target for imperialist powers. That's what's happening now. Ukraine has resources, but Ukraine doesn't have the military resources to defend them. So as you can imagine, in international relations, this is a very bad place to be in."

Bae Eun-ji, Arirang News.