<![CDATA[ Acordo de minerais é “preliminar” e não inclui garantias de segurança: Zelensky vai negociar esta sexta-feira com Trump ]]>

Volodymyr Zelensky warned on Wednesday that the minerals agreement reached this week with the US is “preliminary” and is dependent on the success of the negotiations he intends to hold this Friday with Donald Trump on future security guarantees for Ukraine. The long-awaited meeting, however, could be in jeopardy, after the White House warned that “it makes no sense” for the Ukrainian president to come to Washington if the agreement is not yet finalized.

“This deal can be a great success or not, it all depends on my conversation with President Trump,” the Ukrainian leader said on Wednesday, saying the document agreed on Tuesday between Ukrainian and US negotiators was “preliminary”. “It is just the beginning,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal had confirmed shortly before that the deal does not include the security guarantees demanded by Kiev, adding that they will be discussed directly by Zelensky and Trump at their meeting at the White House on Friday. “After the presidents of the United States and Ukraine agree on the guarantees, and how they relate to this preliminary agreement, the agreement will be signed by a representative of the Ukrainian government in the presence of the two presidents,” Shmyhal said.

Trump announced on Tuesday that Zelensky would come to Washington to sign “a major deal,” but the White House on Wednesday raised doubts about whether the meeting would take place. “If Zelensky says the deal is not finalized, then there was no point in inviting him,” an official said.

The preliminary agreement negotiated between the US and Ukraine, officially called the “Bilateral Agreement on the Terms and Conditions of the Investment Fund for Reconstruction”, stipulates that Kiev will allocate 50% of the proceeds from “future exploration and marketing of natural resources and related infrastructure” to a fund jointly administered with the US, which will in turn invest in Ukraine’s reconstruction. The agreement did not include the deposits, facilities and contracts that are already being operated, nor did it make any reference to the $500 billion that Trump is demanding in return for US military aid to Ukraine.

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