Ukraine has agreed to a deal to turn over the revenue from some of its mineral resources to the United States, a Ukrainian official said on Tuesday, after an intense pressure campaign from President Trump that included insults and threats.
The White House did not confirm that an agreement had been struck.
The final terms of the deal were unknown, and it was not immediately clear what, if anything, Ukraine would receive in return. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine had repeatedly pressed for security guarantees for his country in exchange for mineral rights, as Russia’s war entered its fourth year.
Previous draft agreements reviewed by The New York Times included no such commitment, and the Trump administration has characterized the deal as repayment for past military aid.
Three Ukrainian current and former officials with knowledge of the negotiations said that Kyiv was ready to sign the agreement.
Mr. Trump had insisted he wanted “payback” for past U.S. aid to Kyiv, shifting America’s alliance with Ukraine to a nakedly mercantile footing.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Trump indicated that Mr. Zelensky was coming to Washington later in the week. “I hear that he’s coming on Friday,” he said. “ Certainly, it’s OK with me if he’d like to.”
Mr. Zelensky has been pressing for days to finalize any agreement with Mr. Trump in person.
The discussions about mineral rights have occurred as Russia has seized the advantage on the battlefield. Mr. Trump has aligned himself with President Vladimir V. Putin while excoriating Mr. Zelensky.
Mr. Trump has called the Ukrainian president a “dictator” and falsely said that Ukraine had started the war, though the conflict began with Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
He has prodded Mr. Zelensky to sign a deal, saying he “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.” In response, Mr. Zelensky said that Mr. Trump was trapped in a Russian “disinformation bubble.”
Mr. Zelensky had floated the idea of a resources deal last fall to provide an incentive for more U.S. military support. But he balked at the terms presented by the Trump administration when Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Kyiv on Feb. 12.
At least one other draft of an agreement was also rejected by Mr. Zelensky because it lacked specific U.S. security guarantees and because Mr. Trump was requesting mineral rights worth $500 billion.
The Ukrainians became more comfortable with the deal in the past few days after the Americans removed some of the more onerous conditions.
“I am not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay,” Mr. Zelensky previously told a news conference.
Still, Mr. Zelensky acknowledged that he might ultimately have little choice. “If we are forced and we cannot do without it, then we should probably go for it,” he said, amid intensifying pressure.
