US, Ukraine could ink critical minerals deal as soon as Tuesday: Reports

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US and Ukraine are on track to sign a critical minerals deal as soon as Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

The pending action could come just days after US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy got into a bitter public dispute in the Oval Office Friday that derailed plans to sign the agreement that day.

Trump ultimately booted Zelenskyy from the White House, and he then departed the US to meet with European allies.

Two anonymous sources cautioned that nothing is final, but said Trump has indicated he wants to finalize the deal before he addresses a joint session of Congress Tuesday evening, according to ABC News.

The president is slated to deliver the nationally-televised remarks at 9 pm Eastern Time (0200 GMT).

Trump on Monday signaled hope for the future of the agreement, saying he does not believe it is dead following last week's bitter meeting with Zelenskyy.

"It's a great deal for us, because, you know, Biden, very, very, foolishly, stupidly, frankly, gave $300 billion, $350 billion, more accurately, to a country to fight and to try and do things. And you know what happened? We get nothing," he said, referring to his predecessor, Joe Biden.

"What we're doing is getting that all back, and a lot more than that. And we need, it's very important for this business that we're talking about here with chips and semiconductors and everything else, we need rare earths. And the deal we have is we have the finest rare earths," he added.

Last week, tensions escalated after Zelenskyy raised doubts over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin could be trusted in any negotiations aimed at end the war, citing past agreements that the Russian leader repeatedly broke in the years leading up to the full-scale war he launched on his eastern European neighbor.

Trump had already ruled out Ukraine's membership in NATO, the transatlantic defensive alliance which requires unanimous support for any new member to be admitted, and falsely accused Ukraine of starting Russia's war.

Following the fracas, Zelenskyy abruptly departed the White House, leaving the critical minerals deal unsigned, and cancelling a planned joint press conference with Trump.