United States President Donald Trump said tonight that an agreement on the exploitation of Ukraine's strategic mineral resources will be signed "next Thursday."
"We have a mineral resources agreement that I think will be signed on Thursday, next Thursday. Soon. And I expect that they (the Ukrainians) will honor the agreement. We'll see. But we have an agreement on that," Trump told reporters at the White House.
The US president is insisting on an agreement to compensate for US aid already given to Kiev since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Trump said he did not hold Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky "responsible" for the war in Ukraine, but continued to criticize him.
"I don't blame Zelensky, but I'm not very thrilled that this war was started. I don't blame him, but I don't think he did the best job in the world. I'm not a big fan," the US president said in the Oval Office next to Italian Prime Minister Giorgi Meloni.
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