Bessent: Zelensky Turned Down Two Earlier Opportunities to Sign Minerals Deal with U.S.; Dust-Up with Trump Was Third Chance

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1 Mar 2025263

2:16

Friday, during an appearance on FNC’s “The Ingraham Angle,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent revealed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had turned down two earlier opportunities to sign a proposed minerals deal with the United States.

According to Bessent, Zelensky was given chances in Kyiv by him once in Munich with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Friday’s dust-up with President Donald Trump was his third chance.

“[I] know you had a meeting scheduled — an economic meeting scheduled a few weeks back with President Zelensky,” host Laura Ingraham said. “And tell us about his arrival and punctuality or lack thereof and seemed a little sleepy during the events.”

“Yes, so Laura, I went all the way to Kyiv because I thought it was important,” Bessent replied. “President Trump sent me there to again. We were supposed to bring the Ukrainian people closer to the U.S. people send a strong signal to Russian leadership that we had — not only shared values, but now shared economic interest, and also have a strong signal for the American people that their tax dollars were actually going to work. Instead, President Zelenskyy and I had a very tough 45 minute meeting at a very loud decibel level. And I kept telling him, Mr. President, the purpose of this is to show the Russians there is no daylight between us. And at the end of the meeting, he said, well, I’m not signing this, I said, at the end of the meeting, I said to him, what do you want to go out and tell the press? He said, I said, because I don’t want to go out and show the Russians that there are daylight in between us. And he said, well, I’m going to go out and say I’ll sign it in Munich.”

“Then he got to Munich, and he ran into Vice President Vance and Secretary Rubio, very different, the Vice President Harris and Secretary Blinken, but he didn’t sign the agreement,” he added. “So finally, we were supposed to have the signing today. It was supposed to be a great day, and this is one of the biggest own goals in diplomatic history.”

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