US President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine planned to sign the much-debated minerals deal following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was dismissed from the building, four people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin hailed expanding ties with ally Myanmar at talks with its military junta chief on Tuesday and thanked him for gifting Moscow six elephants.
Donald Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, pledged on Tuesday to strengthen Nato and said the Republican president remained committed to the alliance.
US and Ukraine prepare to sign minerals deal
US President Donald Trump’s administration and Ukraine plan to sign the much-debated minerals deal following a disastrous Oval Office meeting on Friday in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was dismissed from the building, four people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment and neither did Ukraine’s presidential administration in Kyiv and the Ukrainian embassy in Washington.
The deal was put on hold on Friday after Friday’s contentious Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelensky.
US officials have in recent days spoken to officials in Kyiv about signing the minerals deal despite Friday’s blow-up, and urged Zelensky’s advisers to convince the Ukrainian president to apologise openly to Trump, according to one of the people familiar with the matter.
On Tuesday, Zelensky posted on X that Ukraine was ready to sign the deal and calling the Oval Office meeting “regrettable”.
“Our meeting in Washington, at the White House on Friday, did not go the way it was supposed to be,” said Zelensky in his post. “None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians.
“My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
The statement made no mention of the pause in US military supplies, the latest move by Trump to upend US policy on Ukraine and adopt a more conciliatory stance towards Russia.
It was unclear if the deal had changed. The deal that was to be signed last week included no explicit security guarantees for Ukraine but gave the US access to revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources. It also envisaged the Ukrainian government contributing 50% of future monetisation of any state-owned natural resources to a US-Ukraine managed reconstruction investment fund.
Zelensky outlined a path towards a peace agreement, which he said could begin with a release of prisoners and a halt to air and sea attacks, if Russia did the same.
“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the US to agree a strong final deal.”
Earlier, Zelensky’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, said Ukraine’s forces could hold their own on the battlefield against Russian troops, but that Kyiv would do everything possible so that cooperation with the US would continue.
“We will continue to work with the US through all available channels in a calm manner,” said Shmyhal. “We only have one plan — to win and to survive. Either we win, or the Plan B will be written by someone else.”
The Kremlin, for its part, said cutting off military aid to Ukraine was the best possible step towards peace, although it was still waiting to confirm Trump’s move.
Trump’s moves have appalled Democrats, but have so far drawn little or no pushback from Republican leaders in Congress, including many who were once strong, vocal backers of Ukraine.
“By freezing military aid to Ukraine, President Trump has kicked the door wide open for Putin to escalate his violent aggression against innocent Ukrainians,” said Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Kyiv has relied on US and European military aid to hold off a bigger and better-armed foe throughout three years of warfare that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides.
Putin extols ‘elephant diplomacy’ with Myanmar
Military analysts have dubbed the present, which coincided with Russia’s completing delivery of six fighter jets to Myanmar, as part of “elephant diplomacy” between two governments viewed dimly in Western capitals.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since 2021 when its military ousted the administration of Nobel peace prize winner leader Aung San Suu Kyi, triggering a civil war.
“This year we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the signing of the declaration on the foundations of friendship between our countries,” Putin told Min Aung Hlaing, Myanmar’s prime minister, at a meeting in the Kremlin.
“Relations between our countries are indeed developing steadily,” he added, noting bilateral trade rose 40% last year.
The two sides signed an agreement on construction of a small-scale nuclear plant in Myanmar.
Putin also announced that a military unit from Myanmar would take part in the military parade in Moscow on 9 May marking the 80th anniversary of the World War Two victory over Nazi Germany. He said Min Aung Hlaing would also attend.
“And of course, I cannot but thank you for your very warm gift: you brought us six elephants last year, and they have already been given to the Moscow Zoo,” said Putin.
Min Aung Hlaing (68), who rarely travels abroad, praised the quality of Russian military hardware his nation receives and said he supported Putin in the Ukraine war where he believed Moscow would soon be victorious.
The junta is struggling with internal conflict, an economy in tatters, widespread hunger and a third of the nation’s 55 million people in need of aid, according to the UN.
Russia was one of the first countries to back the junta after the 2021 coup when it was being condemned around the world for using lethal force against opponents.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said he saw good prospects for expanding cooperation in areas including agriculture, nuclear energy, transport and infrastructure.
Trump’s Nato nominee pledges to strengthen alliance
Trump’s nominee to be US ambassador to Nato, Matthew Whitaker, pledged on Tuesday to strengthen Nato and said the Republican president remained committed to the alliance.
“If confirmed, I will work tirelessly to strengthen the alliance, ensure the security of the American people and uphold our nation’s role as the beacon of freedom and liberty,” said Whitaker at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
“President Trump has been clear. The United States remains committed to Nato and to peace through strength,” he said.
Whitaker (55), a lawyer with little foreign policy experience, worked in the Justice Department during Trump’s first term, including three months from late 2018 to early 2019 as acting attorney general.
He is expected to be confirmed, as Trump’s fellow Republicans control a majority in the Senate.
Whitaker’s comments came amid tensions over Trump’s apparent lurch toward Russia since beginning his second term in the White House in January, shocking traditional Nato allies in Europe and leaving Ukraine increasingly vulnerable as it fights a Russian invasion.
Whitaker said that, if confirmed, he would visit every Nato member within his first 30 days, to discuss Trump’s demand that every member should spend 5% of GDP on defense.
“I believe that a robust Nato can continue to serve as a bedrock of peace and prosperity, but its vitality rests on every ally doing their fair share by growing our economies and investing in our common defence,” he said.
US military aid pause is a blow to Ukraine, but it can sustain war effort for now
Washington’s suspension of military assistance will not lead to a sudden collapse of Ukraine’s defensive lines, but it could have a real impact on the war within months, undermining air defences and precision strike capabilities in particular.
US deliveries of military aid via Ukraine’s western border halted at 3.30am on Tuesday, a source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters, after Trump paused assistance late on Monday.
The move suspends any further drawdown from $3.85-billion of military aid approved by Congress that Trump inherited from his predecessor, Joe Biden. It also appears to halt deliveries of military equipment already approved by Biden.
“It’s pretty significant, but not nearly as impactful as it would have been earlier in the war because Ukraine is far less dependent on direct US military assistance now than it was previously,” said Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at Carnegie Endowment.
“But it will definitely affect Ukraine, and the effect will become more pronounced after a couple of months as inventories become depleted,” he told Reuters on Monday.
In particular, Kyiv may now struggle to source replacements for sophisticated air defence systems used to repel regular Russian missile attacks, and precision weapons like the Himars missile system, which is one of Ukraine’s main strike systems, with a range of 70-85 km. Prime Minister Shmyhal said the US Patriot system was Ukraine’s only defence against Russian ballistic missiles.
Serhii Zgurets, a military analyst, said high-end air defences would probably run out much sooner than some other types of weapons.
“A lot will depend on the intensity of the fighting. But given the stockpiles that have been accumulated, it won’t be linear,” he said.
Ukraine depended heavily on US military aid after the Russian invasion in February 2022, but survived a monthslong holdup in supplies in the first half of 2024 as Republicans initially refused to sign off on a major assistance package.
That delay was eventually felt on the front, where Ukrainian soldiers complained for months of significant shortages of artillery shells, helping put Moscow’s forces back on the front foot after Ukraine’s failed 2023 counteroffensive.
This time, any loss of US artillery supplies should not deal as big a blow, as Europe has significantly stepped up its supplies of shells, and other countries have contributed directly or indirectly.
Ukraine also now uses domestically made drones for a majority of battlefield strikes, said defence experts.
“Artillery has not lost its place on the field of battle, but we see that the war has changed and it is now based on drones. Artillery needs to be there, it changes the enemy’s intentions, but the base is drones,” said Roman Kostenko, secretary of Ukraine’s parliamentary committee on national security, defence and intelligence.
He said that in 2024, 65% of Russian soldiers killed or wounded by Ukraine were hit by drones, while only 20% were hit with artillery, and only 10% with US artillery.
But the loss of 155mm artillery shells, of which the US was the largest supplier, looks to be a problem.
“I know that at the moment we have some reserves, and I think that, with the current intensity of fighting they should last until about the middle of summer,” he told Reuters.
Serhiy Rakhmanin, a legislator on the parliamentary committee, said much would now depend on whether the US decided to block producers from third countries that hold US production licences and are ready to continue supplying Kyiv with weapons and ammunition.
The United States is Ukraine’s single largest military donor, having delivered or allocated over €64-billion since January 2022, data by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy show.
Europe’s military aid amounts to just under €62-billion.
Rakhmanin told Reuters: “If our European partners have the freedom to act, if they have the time, the desire, the money and the ability to help us, this will not be a disaster.”
He pointed in particular to howitzers and air defence missiles.
Similar questions apply to the sharing of US intelligence data, and whether Washington would allow it to be passed on by third countries, he added.
Kyiv also relies heavily on Starlink, a satellite internet system run by Elon Musk’s SpaceX, for battlefield communications and drone operations, though a source with knowledge of the matter said there had been no disruption of services for now.
For now, there is no sign the US has terminated intelligence sharing with Ukraine, although relations are under great strain as Washington engages directly with Russia to seek an end to the war in Ukraine.
JD Vance denies disrespecting UK and France over peacekeeping force
US Vice-President JD Vance denied on Tuesday disrespecting Britain and France by describing a planned peacekeeping force in Ukraine as 20,000 troops from some “random country that has not fought a war in 30 or 40 years”.
Vance’s comments about the planned British- and French-led European peacekeeping force caused politicians and veterans in both countries to say he was dishonouring hundreds of troops killed fighting alongside US forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Vance said it was “absurdly dishonest’ to suggest he had criticised British or French troops in his comments, made in an interview with Fox News on Monday.
“I don’t even mention the UK or France in the clip, both of whom have fought bravely alongside the US over the last 20 years, and beyond,” he said on X.
Only Britain and France have publicly committed to a European peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
Vance said on Tuesday he was referring to other potential countries in what British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called at the weekend “a coalition of the willing” that would contribute to any post-war peacekeeping force in Ukraine.
In the past 40 years, British and French troops have fought alongside US troops in Iraq and in Afghanistan.
James Cartlidge, the British opposition Conservative Party’s spokesman on defence, called Vance’s comments “deeply disrespectful”.
Johnny Mercer, a British veteran and a former junior defence minister, called Vance a “clown”.
French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu said in parliament: “We respect the veterans of all the allied countries. We will make sure that our own veterans are respected.”
French President Emmanuel Macron’s Renaissance party on X said: “The French and British soldiers who died fighting terrorism, who fought and sometimes died alongside American soldiers, deserve better than the disdain of the American vice president.”
Nigel Farage, the leader of the British right-wing populist Reform party and a friend of Trump, said: “Wrong, wrong, wrong” when asked about Vance’s comments.
Vance told Fox News on Monday that the best way to ensure peace in Ukraine was to open up Ukraine’s minerals to the US
“If you want to actually ensure that Vladimir Putin does not invade Ukraine again, the very best security guarantee is to give Americans economic upside in the future of Ukraine,” he said.
“That is a way better security guarantee than 20,000 troops from some random country that hasn’t fought a war in 30 or 40 years.” DM