US President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is "pretty close" to striking a deal with Ukraine for rights to access its natural resources in exchange for the United States’ billions of dollars in support for the country against Russia,
Fox News reports.
"You know, I think they want it, and they feel good about it," Trump told reporters on Friday in the Oval Office after the swearing-in ceremony of Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. "And it's significant. It's a big deal. But they want it, and it keeps us in that country. And they're very happy about it.
"We get our money back. They should have been signed long before we went in. They should have been signed by Biden. But Biden didn't know too much about what he was doing. The war should have never happened, No. 1. When it did happen, it could have been settled.
"The first week or two weeks after that, it got bad. It got really bad, but it should have been, it should have never happened. And it should have been settled, and it could have been settled very easily at the beginning. Now it's tougher, but we'll get it settled."
During his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, Trump’s National Security Advisor, Mike Waltz, said, "Here’s the bottom line: President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is going to sign that deal, and you will see that in the very short term."
Waltz also told "Fox & Friends" this week that Ukraine should "tone down" its criticism of Trump and "come back to the table" to work out an economic deal with the U.S.
