NEW YORK, April 5. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky was the one who derailed a minerals deal between Ukraine and the United States, which should have been "the easiest thing to do," US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said.
"He got to the Oval Office and blew up what should have been the easiest thing to do in the world. He's supposed to show up, have a press conference; we're going to have a private lunch. If he had anything on his mind, there were going to be nine of us, nine of them in the White House dining room; he could have aired his grievances in. And there's a famous photo in the East Wing ballroom of everything laid out on the table to be signed, and it never got signed," Bessent pointed out in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson.
The first version of the deal was not signed because of a verbal spat between Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House on February 28. Kiev said on March 27 that it had received a new version of the document from the US. It would oblige Ukraine to repay more than $120 billion in aid. The US would control an investment fund that is supposed to be set up for the reconstruction of Ukraine and hold payments charged by Ukraine for issuing mineral extraction licenses, along with royalties for the extraction of resources. The Ukrainian authorities have repeatedly said in this regard that they are still working on a position on the deal, while Zelensky complained about Washington changing the deal’s terms. However, Trump said if Zelensky backed out of the deal, he was going to have "big, big problems.".
