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Ukraine official says minerals deal agreed with US

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Ukraine has agreed the terms of a major minerals deal with the US, a senior official in Kyiv has told the BBC.

“We have indeed agreed it with a number of good amendments and see it as a positive outcome,” the official said, without providing any further details.

Media reports say Washington has dropped initial demands for a right to $500bn (£395bn) in potential revenue from utilising the natural resources but has not given firm security guarantees to war-torn Ukraine – a key Ukrainian demand.

US President Donald Trump said he was expecting his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky in Washington to sign the deal this week, after the two leaders exchanged strong words about each other.

Without confirming that an agreement had been reached, Trump said on Tuesday that in return for the deal Ukraine would get “the right to fight on”.

“They’re very brave,” he told reporters, but “without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time”.

Asked whether supplies of US equipment and ammunition to Ukraine would continue, he said: “Maybe until we have a deal with Russia… We need to have a deal, otherwise it’s going to continue.”

There would be a need for “some form of peacekeeping” in Ukraine following any peace deal, Trump added, but that would need to be “acceptable to everyone”.

Just last week, Trump described Zelensky as a “dictator”, and appeared to blame Ukraine – not Russia – for starting the war, after the Ukrainian leader rejected US demands for $500bn in mineral wealth and suggested that the American president was living in a “disinformation space” created by Russia.

Trump has been pushing for access to Ukraine’s minerals in return for previous military and other aid to the country since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion three years ago.

Zelensky argued nowhere near that much American aid had been provided, adding: “I can’t sell our state.”

On Tuesday, Trump said the US had given Ukraine between $300bn and $350bn.

“We want to get that money back,” he said. “We’re helping the country through a very very big problem… but the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back plus.”

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna told the Financial Times – which first reported the minerals deal on Tuesday – that the deal was “only part of the picture”.

“We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it’s part of a bigger picture,” said Stefanishyna, who has led the negotiations.

According to Ukrainian sources, the US has had to back away from some of its more onerous demands from the war-torn nation and many of the details of this agreement will require further negotiation.

The precedent, however, is set. US aid in the Trump era comes with strings attached. Aid for aid’s sake – whether given for humanitarian or strategic reasons – is a thing of the past.

That represents a fundamental reordering of American foreign policy for more than 75 years, from the days of the Marshall Plan to post-Cold War idealism and George W Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” push to promote global democracy.

Ukraine is just the start. Expect Trump and his foreign policy team to apply their “America First” principles around the world over the course of the next four years.

Ukraine’s news site Ukrainska Pravda reported that the minerals deal was set to be signed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The news site’s economics unit EP said the two countries had also agreed to set up a reconstruction investment fund.

Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, including lithium and titanium, as well as sizeable coal, gas, oil and uranium deposits – supplies worth billions of dollars.

Last year, Zelensky presented a “victory plan” to Ukraine and its Western partners which proposed that foreign firms could gain access to some of the countries’ mineral wealth at the end of the war.

On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to offering the US access to rare minerals, including from Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.

Ukraine and its European allies have become increasingly alarmed over a recent thaw in US-Russian ties, including their bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia last week.

There is concern in Kyiv and across Europe that they might be excluded from any negotiations aimed at ending the war, and that the continent’s future security as a whole could be decided behind their backs.

What minerals does Ukraine actually have?
It is estimated that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are in Ukraine – including:

19 million tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which is used to make batteries for electric vehicles

A third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries.

Before Russia’s full-scale invasion began three years ago, Ukraine also produced 7% of the world’s titanium, used in construction for everything from aeroplanes to power stations.

Ukrainian land also contains significant deposits of rare earth metals, a group of 17 elements that are used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other products vital in the modern world

Some mineral deposits have been seized by Russia. According to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister, resources worth $350bn remain in Russian-occupied territories today.

(BBC News)

World

Over 80,000 evacuated amid serious flooding in SW China

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Continuous heavy rainfall and upstream inflows have triggered severe flooding in two counties of Guizhou Province in southwest China, prompting mass evacuations.

As of 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, 48,900 residents were temporarily evacuated in Rongjiang County and 32,000 in Congjiang County. The flood control emergency response has been escalated to Level I, the highest, in both counties.

Rongjiang, a county known for Cun Chao — a rural football league covering over 100 village teams and drawing numerous fans across the country, saw heavy rainstorms from 8 p.m. Monday, with a venue at the Duliu River exceeding the warning level by 6.68 meters as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.

The football field at the Cun Chao stadium was submerged under three meters of water.

Long Tian, a resident near the stadium, recalled that when he woke up at 8 a.m. Tuesday, the water downstairs was already thigh-deep.

“The water rose very quickly, so I stayed on the third floor waiting for rescue. By the afternoon, I had been transferred to safety,” Long said.

Rescue teams, including firefighters and volunteers, deployed boats and other equipment for the rescue work in the two counties.

As of 4 p.m. Tuesday, the provincial emergency department had allocated disaster relief items, including 30,000 bottles of drinking water and 10,000 bowls of instant noodles, to the two counties via high-speed rail and road transport.

Also in Guizhou, rain-triggered landslides caused the collapse of part of a bridge on an expressway in the county of Sandu. No casualties have been reported so far.

(Xinhua)

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Israel agrees to ceasefire proposal

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The Israeli government has said it agreed to the ceasefire proposal after “achieving the objectives” of its attacks on Iran.
According to the statement, Israel has removed Iran’s “dual immediate existential threat” from nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles.

It also says Israel has “inflicted severe damage on the military leadership, and destroyed dozens of central Iranian government targets”.

The statement goes on to say that Israeli forces, in the last day, have “severely struck government targets in the heart of Tehran, eliminating hundreds of Basij operatives” – a militia the Iranian government often uses to suppress protests – and “eliminating another senior nuclear scientist”.

“Israel thanks President Trump and the United States for their support in defence and their participation in eliminating the Iranian nuclear threat,” the statement adds.

Earlier, Iran state TV news channel IRINN says a ceasefire has been “imposed” on Israel following the “successful” Iranian attack on the US base in Qatar.

State TV said in a statement that Trump “begged” for a ceasefire following Iran’s attack. The statement was read aloud by the presenter.

The statement also hailed Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Army and praised the “resistance” of Iranians.

The statement also called Iran’s attack on the US base in Qatar as the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ “successful” response to the US attacking three Iranian nuclear sites, while Qatar said all missiles were intercepted.

(Excerpts : BBC News)

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Trump says Iran – Israel have agreed to a ceasefire

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US President Donald Trump has announced a “complete and total” ceasefire between Israel and Iran on social media.

Trump says the ceasefire will begin “in approximately six hours from now” after each country has “wound down” their military operations.

Trump’s announcement contains a periodic unravelling of hostilities but says that “upon the 24th hour” the war will officially end.

Meanwhile, Iran’s foreign minister, Seyed Abbas Araghchi, has posted on X saying there is “no agreement of any ceasefire or cessation of military operations.”

“”As Iran has repeatedly made clear: Israel launched war on Iran, not the other way around…However, provided that the Israeli regime stops its illegal aggression against the Iranian people no later than 4 am Tehran time, we have no intention to continue our response afterwards,: he has added.

“The final decision on the cessation of our military operations will be made later,” he has further said.

Meanwhile, Reuters have reported citing a senior White House official as saying that President Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Iran through talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday while his team, including Vice President JD Vance, held talks with Tehran.

The official, providing details of the ceasefire on condition of anonymity, has said Israel agreed to it so long as Iran does not launch fresh attacks.

(Agencies)

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