President Donald Trump has explained exactly what he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke about during meeting at Pope Francis' funeral.
Just hours after striking a minerals deal with Ukraine, the 78-year-old Republican phoned in to NewsNation where he was quizzed on the real reason behind the ‘historic’ 15-minute deal-making meeting on Friday (April 26).
A photograph of the two leaders went viral depicting them sat opposite one another on chairs within St Peter’s Basilica, in the Vatican City.
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Four days later, the US and Ukraine reached a natural resources agreement which will see then Trump administration establish a reconstruction investment fund that will see Ukraine work alongside its western ally to rebuild its heavily bombed infrastructure.
In return, Ukraine will split any profits and royalties that Ukraine receives from any future sale of its 2.5-billion-year-old rare earth minerals.
With Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal insisting that the deal is equitable for his nation, with Ukraine maintaining full control over its natural resources while adding that the deal brokered means the US would only profit off of new investments.
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Speaking about the now-famous meeting with Zelenskyy, Trump explained: "I was telling him that it's a very good thing if we can produce a deal that you sign it, because Russia is much bigger and much stronger. Russia is just chugging forward. It's a big, strong country."
He went on to criticize his predecessor Joe Biden, while in the same breath as claiming the US military is much stronger than Russia's.
Trying to get Trump back on topic, host Bill O’Reilly interjected: "You got the deal with Zelenskyy on the minerals. That means the United States is going to have a presence in Ukraine. Is that going to inhibit Putin, do you think?"
To which the president responded: "Well it could. The reason I did that is that we're in for $350 billion or close to it, whereas Europe is only in it for $100 billion.
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"I felt very foolish. You know, they they loaned the money and Biden handed them $350 billion, between cash and military equipment - $350 billion we got nothing.
"And I felt very bullish being the head of the country where Europe gets their money back, and it's a much smaller amount, and we get nothing."
However, Trump provided no evidence to support his claim that the US has given Ukraine $350 billion worth of aid since the war broke out in February 2022.
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Recorded figures are much lower, with the US Department of State claiming it has provided the equivalent of $182.8 billion in support to Ukraine.
Meanwhile non-profit Kiel Institute - a German-based organization that is tracking support going into Ukraine - puts that figure at $119.7 billion.
As a whole, Europe has invested more money in Ukraine than the US, according to the institute.
Trump added: "So I went to them and said, 'Look, we got to get rare earth'. They have great rare earth, meaning certain minerals, materials - they have things that a lot of places don't have, it's a big asset that they have."
Topics: Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine, News
Joe Yates