Azernews.Az

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declined his United States counterpart Donald Trump's offer for the latter country to acquire about half of the former's mineral reserves to pay for all the assistance provided during Russia's military campaign, Azernews reports via The Financial Times (FT).

According to people familiar with the matter, Ukraine is seeking to negotiate a better agreement. They explained that the document that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented to Zelensky and that Trump wanted the latter to sign did not include any security guarantees for Ukraine. Kiev found that unacceptable and is looking to make a better deal for itself, the sources added.

Previously, Zelensky stated during the Munich Security Conference (MSC) that Ukraine will examine Trump's proposal.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously called on Saturday for Europe to create a unified army amid security challenges embodied in Russia.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference (MSC), Zelensky insisted that Russia is not ready for a peaceful solution to the conflict in Ukraine and cited the recent alleged attack on the now-defunct nuclear power plant in Chernobyl as proof of that.

Furthermore, Zelensky claimed that the Ukrainian intelligence services found recently that Russia is preparing to send troops to Belarus in the summer to get closer to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) territories. "[Russian President Vladimi] Putin clearly sees Belarus as just another Russian province now," he insisted.