The agreement that the United States proposed to sign with Ukraine on Ukrainian rare earth metals did not mention any security guarantees. The document was unclear and demanded that 50% of the total amount be given away. Ukraine needs clear security guarantees from its partners, not from the Russians. This was stated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a press conference on Wednesday, an UNN correspondent reports.
The document was not clear. It was clear only in one thing - we must give 50% of everything listed in the document. We are not afraid of this, and I am ready for this document to be made public. I don't think it will help our relationship, so I said that this document is not ready. It is beyond my capabilities, beyond my authority, beyond the Constitution and all legislation. I said that there was no word about security guarantees, and at the second meeting with Vance we agreed that there could be something about it
He emphasized that "there needs to be some kind of positive change.
"I said that there should be some kind of positive - you write some guarantees, and we will write some percentages in the memorandum. They said only 50%. I said: "Okay, no problem". And then let the lawyers work further," Zelensky added.
According to him, Ukraine wants security guarantees, to end the war this year.
"We want to end the war this year. I offered them NATO, and I understand that every time we talk about NATO, they don't even like that we talk about it, but we say what we think. And in general, I want to tell you that security guarantees are not something you can just say that you have to give the Russians something, meet them halfway. Yes, but we don't want security guarantees from the Russians. We have not yet reached the conditions regarding the Russians. When we talk about a deal, we will talk about what the Russians have to do. Now we are talking about a quick solution - security guarantees. They depend solely on our partners - NATO, or our million-strong army, weapons for this army, air defense," the President noted.
Recall
Ukraine's President refused to sign a document on the transfer of 50% of Ukraine's mineral resources to the US due to the lack of security guarantees. Zelenskiy emphasized the importance of clear security guarantees in the future deal.