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In Address To Congress, Trump Says Zelenskyy Offered To Sign Minerals Deal 'At Any Time'

By Todd Prince March 05, 2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- US President Donald Trump said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has informed him that he's ready for talks with Russia to end the war in his country and offered to sign a deal on Ukraine's mineral resources "at any time."

After a week of tumult that culminated with the US announcing a suspension of military aid to Ukraine after a heated exchange between the two leaders, Trump told a joint session of Congress on March 4 Zelenskyy sent him a letter expressing a willingness to come to the negotiating table.

"Earlier today, I received an important letter from President Zelenskyy of Ukraine. The letter reads, 'Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians,' he said," Trump quoted the letter as saying.

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy said that "none of us want an endless war," adding that Ukraine was "ready to return to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring long-term peace closer."

"My team and I are ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to achieve long-term peace," he added.

Trump said 2,000 people were being killed every week in the war -- both young Russians and young Ukrainians.

"I want it to stop," he said, claiming that the United States had spent "perhaps $350 billion," while Europe has spent just $100 billion.

European leaders have disputed similar previous claims by US officials.

The Germany-based Kiehl Institute says its research shows overall aid allocated by the US to Ukraine so far has totaled around 114 billion euros, making it the largest single donor. But, it adds, Europe as a whole has allocated about 132 billion euros.

Trump's speech came hours after he announced a pause on all US military support for Ukraine in its battle to repel invading Russian forces and after the highly public argument in the Oval Office.

Zelenskyy left the White House on February 28 following the dispute and the two did not sign the critical minerals agreement. During a press conference on March 3, Trump said he did not think the deal was dead.

Trump did not mention his public spat with Zelenskyy last week in the Oval Office, flipping the narrative by saying: "We are getting along very well with them and lots of things are happening."

In quoting Zelenskyy, Trump "signaled that he put the conversation in the White House on the sidelines," Mikhail Alexeev, a professor of political science at San Diego State University, told RFE/RL.

"There was no call for Zelenskyy to resign. There was no talk about Ukraine being ungrateful."

Trump has made ending the war a priority and flipped three years of US policy on its head by reaching out directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom his predecessor had isolated politically since the start of the war in February 2022.

Daniel Vajdich, president of Yorktown Solutions, which lobbies on behalf of Kyiv, said the agreement on minerals would be good for both Ukraine and the United States.

"It gives the US concrete equities in Ukraine that should now be protected," said Vajdich.

The fund created by the agreement will be an important mechanism for getting the US private sector to invest in Ukraine's reconstruction, Vajdich, a former adviser to several Republican presidential candidates, added.

Trump had promoted the deal as a way to recoup the billions of dollars in U.S. support since the war began and justify continuing the aid.

Trump will also mention the billions of dollars that has been sent by the United States to support Ukraine's defense, while criticizing Europe for buying Russian oil and gas and his predecessor, President Joe Biden, for authorizing more aid money fight than Europe has spent.

The address is Trump's first to a joint session of Congress since taking office less than 50 days ago.

The US president began his speech by saying "America is back" and touting his policies on immigration, crime, and the efforts of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by billionaire Elon Musk to cut government spending.

Trump credited Musk with identifying "hundreds of billions of dollars of fraud," a claim far exceeding what the administration has claimed so far.

Trump has pursued a "shock and awe" strategy since being inaugurated on January 20, announcing drastic changes to domestic and foreign policy, often using executive orders to bypass Congress, as he seeks to fulfill his campaign promises.

He said that since his inauguration "it has been nothing but swift and unrelenting action to usher in the greatest and most successful era in the history of our country."

Rebecca Gill, a political science professor at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, told RFE/RL the more than 100-minute address, the longest ever by a president to a joint session of Congress, was "typical Trump."

"I don't think anybody would be surprised that it was pretty aggressive and combative," she said.

One of his most contentious moves was 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, two of the United States' largest trading partners, that went into effect on March 4, triggering the sharpest decline in U.S. stocks in more than two months.

"Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again. And it's happening, and will happen rather quickly," Trump said.

Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, said the tariffs would lead to slower US growth, higher unemployment, and higher inflation.

"The economy has already gotten off to a poor start this year because of an unusually cold January, LA wildfires and surge in policy uncertainty. The tariffs will likely only fan concerns that the poor start to the year could morph into something worse," Sweet said in a March 4 note.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-congress-ukraine- russia-war-tariffs-speech/33336730.html

Copyright (c) 2025. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.