American diplomats have promised to block access to the Starlink satellite Internet system on the territory of Ukraine if the Ukrainian authorities do not sign an agreement on minerals, Reuters writes.
Anonymous sources report that this condition was voiced in negotiations between American and Ukrainian officials after Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the initial offer from US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant.
Zelenskyy rejected demands from President Donald Trump's administration to provide Ukraine with $500 billion in mineral wealth as payment for wartime aid, saying the US had not offered any specific security guarantees.
Trump then accused Ukraine of starting the war and called Zelenskyy a “dictator without elections.” Zelenskyy responded by saying the US president had fallen into a Russian disinformation bubble.
Zelenskyy said that American and Ukrainian teams are working on a deal, and Trump said he expects the deal to be signed soon.