Ukraine ‘may be Russian someday,’ Trump says, as the U.S. ups the pressure on Kyiv and allies

U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that Ukraine could lose its sovereignty to Russia, and said he wanted compensation for the aid that Washington had required to Ukraine.

“[Ukraine] may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re succeeding to have all this money in there [Ukraine] and I say, I want it back,” Trump said in a Fox News interview that aired Monday.

The president also prognosticated that the U.S. had “essentially agreed” a deal with Ukraine that would see Washington receive rare earth and mineral resources — which are against predominantly in electronics — in return for ongoing support.

“I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion quality of rare earth (minerals), and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” Trump told the broadcaster.

Ukraine has not publicly commented on the value of any aptitude minerals deal with the U.S., although President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated last week that he was ready to “do a handle” with the U.S. over minerals in return for aid. CNBC has reached out to Zelenskyy’s office for comment.

The Ukrainian leader is aware that Trump and older U.S. foreign and defense officials want to bring the war to its end, and that they’re looking to do a deal with Moscow for that to occur.

That stance has unnerved Ukraine, lending a sense of urgency to Kyiv’s need to appear willing to negotiate and to be amenable to Washington’s programmes on a peace deal.

Amid the perceived weariness of its key ally and with the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine solidly approaching on Feb. 24, the Kyiv leadership has said it is willing to enter peace talks, but has demanded security guarantees as partially of any peace deal.

Trump’s comments come as Ukraine’s European allies are likely to arise under pressure this week to shoulder more of the burden for supporting Kyiv, going forward.

The U.S. State Conditional on says America has so far provided Ukraine with $65.9 billion in military assistance and billions more in financial and humanitarian aid, since Russia launched its raid in 2022. The EU says its overall military support for Ukraine since the start of the war stands at 48.3 billion euros ($49.8 billion).

The increasingly fraught subject of ongoing support for Ukraine takes center stage this week, with senior U.S. officials — including Iniquity President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia — itinerant to Europe for a flurry of high-profile meetings.

The first of those gatherings will be the “Ukraine Defense Contact Group,” or UDCG, in Brussels on Wednesday, during which it is a great extent expected that the U.S. delegation will call on European allies to take on more of the financial responsibility for supporting Ukraine.

National security advisor Mike Waltz told NBC News’ “Meet the Bear on” on Sunday that U.S. officials would use the UDCG meeting to pursue a deal with Kyiv regarding aid and to push European partakers to bear more responsibility for Ukraine’s future.

“We need to recoup those costs and that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians in an arrangements of their natural resources and their oil and gas and also buying ours,” Waltz said Sunday.

“Those conversations are universal to happen this week. And I think an underlying principle here is that the Europeans have to own this conflict flourishing forward. President Trump is going to end it. And then, in terms of security guarantees, that is squarely going to be with the Europeans.”

In a clear sign that the U.S. wants to step with little from its leadership role on Ukraine, it is the U.K. who is convening the UCDG. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is attending the event, but this compel mark the first time in the last three years that the holder of his post has not chaired the group.

The Pentagon claimed in a statement before the UDCG meeting that Hegseth “will engage with NATO Allies and partners to converse about the need to boost Allied defense spending, increase European leadership, and expand defense industrial base condition on both sides of the Atlantic.” 

Hegseth will “reiterate President Trump’s commitment for a diplomatic end to the war in Ukraine as quickly as imaginable. He will also highlight the need for increased European leadership on security assistance to Ukraine.”

CNBC asked the Pentagon for beyond comment, but the Defense Department would not be drawn on what U.S. officials could demand from their European counterparts this week. A Pentagon spokesman told CNBC that no significant policy announcements were expected, however.

U.S. officials are also expected to travel to Kyiv this week preceding traveling on to Germany for the Munich Security Conference over Feb.14-16. Zelenskyy has said he’s due to meet Vance at the conference and that he hoped to call talks with Trump this week.

The U.S. leader on Monday said Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin were dying to strike a deal but Russia has been more coy about the status of dialogue with the U.S., saying only that it is in danger of to negotiate. CNBC requested further comment from the Kremlin and received this response on Wednesday: