Zelenskyy says meeting with Trump is important, no ceasefire possible without security guarantees

“It is important for me (to get rid of the wording about the debt in the agreement with the United States - ed.) Even though this is a framework agreement and the first step, and it is clear that it is about the fund, there is nothing to say until there is an agreement on the fund. So, no one is reimbursing anything yet. And until the next agreement (on the fund - ed.) is ratified... but this is all about the future, and the debt is about the past. And I frankly say, we have received help, no matter what the amount is in the meetings with the Treasury Secretary, Kellogg, the Vice President, Rubio, I said if there is one dollar in this deal, no matter what you say publicly, if there is one dollar, all the countries that helped us should come up and say, we also want to invest in the fund and we want you to invest the money that you took not only from the United States, but you took from us, and we want to count on a part of this fund, and so on,” he said.

The President noted that he had explained this precedent and the “Pandora's box” and assured that he would not do it.

“And here are the dishonest, unfortunate government officials who did not sleep, we had very heated dialogues. I will not go for 10 cents of debt repayment in this deal, otherwise it is a precedent. We are grateful, and as I said, in the next agreement, which this agreement opens, in which we can talk more substantively about security guarantees or specific amounts, how the fund will be managed, etc., we are ready to talk, if it is a condition that further assistance to Ukraine will not be free, this is a new reality. Everyone understands the conditions we are in, we are at war. If I am told that we are continuing to help, we are giving you weapons worth 30 billion, you have to return something to us. They will tell us - we will return it because we will need this help,” he said.

What Ukraine expects from the US after signing the agreement

Next, according to Zelenskyy, the teams should develop an agreement on this fund - “for this first agreement to work out, we need another agreement.”

“When you finish with this agreement, you definitely need a second one, because this one does not work. And after the second one, there will be a third one that should work. Let the lawyers work. They will work to ensure that there is a fund and ratification in the parliament because there is specific money there. After the fund is set up, that's what will happen. And there are already specific investments,” the head of state said.

Zelenskyy emphasized that between the first step (the framework agreement) and the second step (the fund), Ukraine must understand where it is with the United States in terms of partnership.

“That's why I think our meeting with Trump is important. We must all understand that there will not be a simple ceasefire, and Ukraine will not have security guarantees, it will not be like that. There will be an end to the war only in such a way that we know that it will not start tomorrow,” the president said.

Agreements between Ukraine and the United States

After the agreement on rare earth metals, Ukraine plans to sign another one with the United States. It will concern an investment fund.

Assessing the success of the rare earths agreement, Zelenskyy previously stated that it could be a great success or a quiet one.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already received an invitation to the United States. The offices are currently working on it.