Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday that the Trump administration would restart military aid to Ukraine and formalize a framework mineral rights deal if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his team talk “privately” with the US about negotiating a peace deal.
President Trump “wants the Ukrainians to come to the negotiating table,” the VP told reporters at the Capitol ahead of Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress.
“I think the president is still committed to the mineral deal. I think we’ve heard some positive things, but not yet, of course, a signature from our friends in Ukraine,” Vance went on, describing the agreement as “important” to Trump.
“I think when the Ukrainians come to the negotiating table, everything is on the table,” Vance, 40, said when asked about the resumption of military aid that the White House ordered paused Monday evening.
Zelensky met with Trump and Vance at the White House on Friday in anticipation of inking an understanding that would have created a joint US-Ukraine fund dedicated to extracting key minerals in the war-torn country.
Trump had touted the deal as a way to “get back” the billions of dollars the US had given to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, and Zelensky had celebrated the agreement as a means of getting a form of “security” through the presence of American businessmen on the ground.
But the deal quickly fell through after Trump, Zelensky and Vance got into a heated argument in the Oval Office about further security guarantees, with the VP and Trump accusing the Ukrainian president of being “disrespectful.”
Zelensky has since said repeatedly that he would still sign the mineral deal, writing on X on Tuesday that it’s “time to make things right,” but Trump has not spoken to him since the blowup.
Vance, at the Capitol, said the Trump team was less concerned about “public statements” than private indications the Ukrainians were willing to “meaningfully engage.”
“The public stuff doesn’t matter nearly as much as, ‘What are the Ukrainians doing to meaningfully engage on what a peaceful settlement would look like?’” he explained. “We need the Ukrainians to come to us privately and say, ‘This is what we need, this is what we want, this is how we’re going to participate in the process to end this conflict.’”
“That lack of private engagement is what is most concerning to us,” Vance added.
It was unclear as of midday Tuesday whether any communication had taken place between the administrations in Washington and Kyiv.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive,” the Ukrainian president wrote on X Tuesday morning.
“Regarding the agreement on minerals and security, Ukraine is ready to sign it in any time and in any convenient format. We see this agreement as a step toward greater security and solid security guarantees, and I truly hope it will work effectively.”
