Guardian obtains memorandum of intent to be signed by Ukraine and US
Luke Harding
The Guardian’s Luke Harding in Kyiv has obtained the memorandum of intent to be signed next week by Ukraine and the US over a minerals deal. It envisages setting up a joint investment fund between the two countries. The draft recognises the “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
It does not clarify whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. He adds that Ukraine is willing to pay for future military aid from the Trump administration.
Key events
Ukraine’s deputy minister of economy has said that the US and Ukraine have reached an understanding that the Ukrainian parliament would need to ratify the minerals deal agreement.
More details soon …
China says ‘never provided lethal weapons’ to parties in Ukraine war
Beijing on Friday denied giving any party in the Ukraine war lethal weapons, after president Volodymyr Zelenskyy claimed he had “information” that China was supplying arms to Russia.
“The Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said, according to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Zelenskyy did not elaborate on his accusations, saying only that Kyiv was “ready” to talk about them in detail.
Last week, the Ukrainian leader said Kyiv knew of at least 155 Chinese nationals deployed to assist Moscow’s invasion, and alleged the Ukrainian army had captured two Chinese soldiers in the eastern Donetsk region.
Beijing on Friday said that its “position on the Ukraine issue is consistent and clear”. “We have always actively made efforts for a cessation of hostilities and peace talks,” Lin said.
China has portrayed itself as a neutral party in the three-year war, despite criticism from western governments that its close ties to Russia have given Moscow crucial economic and diplomatic support.
Guardian obtains memorandum of intent to be signed by Ukraine and US
Luke Harding
The Guardian’s Luke Harding in Kyiv has obtained the memorandum of intent to be signed next week by Ukraine and the US over a minerals deal. It envisages setting up a joint investment fund between the two countries. The draft recognises the “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
It does not clarify whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. He adds that Ukraine is willing to pay for future military aid from the Trump administration.
Jon Henley
Senior US, European and Ukrainian diplomats will meet again in London next week, the Élysée Palace has said, after what a French official described as an “excellent” day of talks in Paris aimed at reviving stalled ceasefire efforts.
“We have started a positive process in which Europeans are a part,” the spokesperson said after the meetings attended by top British, French, German and Ukrainian officials as well as the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff.
The French official said:
The Americans are ready to discuss security guarantees, but the exact content of those guarantees will depend on negotiations allowing Ukraine to achieve a solid and durable peace starting with a complete ceasefire as soon as possible.
France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, hosted the talks as Washington and Europe seek common ground on how to end the fighting three years after Russia invaded its neighbour, with Trump’s pledge to swiftly end the war so far unfulfilled.
“Everyone wants to get peace. A robust and sustainable peace. The question is about phasing,” Macron said as the talks got under way. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, who also attended, said afterwards the talks were “very productive” but gave no details.
A previously unannounced team of Ukrainian officials including Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, and the country’s foreign and defence ministers flew in to meet the US and European delegations.
Yermak said:
We exchanged views on the next steps … including the implementation of a full ceasefire, the involvement of a multinational military contingent and development of an effective security architecture for Ukraine.
US will walk away from Russia-Ukraine peace deal if no progress made soon, Rubio says
US president Donald Trump will walk away from trying to broker a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there are clear signs that a deal can be done, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday.
Rubio said in Paris, after meeting European and Ukrainian leaders:
We’re not going to continue with this endeavour for weeks and months on end.
So we need to determine very quickly now, and I’m talking about a matter of days whether or not this is doable in the next few weeks. If it is we’re in. If it’s not, then we have other priorities to focus on as well.
According to Reuters, Rubio said Trump was still interested in a deal but was willing to move on if there were no immediate signs of progress.
Trump promised during his election campaign to end the war within his first 24 hours in the White House. He moderated that claim on taking office, suggesting a deal by April or May, as obstacles mounted.
More on this story in a moment, but first, here are other key developments:
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China is supplying weapons to Russia, including gunpowder and artillery, and Chinese representatives are involved in weapons production on Russian territory, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday, citing reporting by Ukrainian security and intelligence agencies. “We are ready to speak in detail about this,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Ukraine expects to share documentation to support the claims next week. China has denied arming Russia against Ukraine.
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Beijing on Friday denied giving any party in the Ukraine war lethal weapons. “The Chinese side has never provided lethal weapons to any party in the conflict, and strictly controls dual-use items,” foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said.
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Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said on Thursday that Kyiv had signed a “memorandum of intent” with Washington on a planned “investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine”. Donald Trump said they would sign a minerals deal “next Thursday”. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that a deal was targeted for 26 April.
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Russian strikes killed two people and injured at least 27 others overnight in Kharkiv and Sumy in north-eastern Ukraine, authorities said on Friday. “According to preliminary information, the strikes on Kharkiv were carried out by ballistic missiles with cluster munitions. That is why the affected areas are very large,” said Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, adding that 15 apartment buildings had been damaged. In Sumy, near the Russian border, a Russian Shahed drone attack on civilian infrastructure killed one person and injured one other, the regional military administration said.
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Zelenskyy said Russia had reduced the number of strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities but stepped up attacks on civilian infrastructure instead. Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv that in total, Russia was launching the same number of missiles and drones at Ukraine as before. “They reduced their strikes on energy. That’s a fact. But I wanted us to pay attention to this – Russia did not reduce the number of strikes, that was the strategy … by reducing [strikes on] energy, they are hitting other civilian infrastructure.”
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Russia’s UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia, on Thursday accused Ukraine at the security council of ignoring the energy ceasefire. In a joint statement after the council met, Slovenia, Denmark, France, Greece, and Britain urged Russia to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire. Slovenia’s UN ambassador, Samuel Zbogar, said: “Ukraine wants peace, and has demonstrated this by agreeing to a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire five weeks ago. At the consultations today, Russia again rejected the comprehensive ceasefire and refused to make its first step towards peace.”
