US Treasury Secretary Bessent to visit Kyiv as Trump seeks Ukraine’s rare earths

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was set to travel to Ukraine this week to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky as part of US efforts to resolve the war and secure access to critical minerals.

Bessent, who would be the first member of Donald Trump’s cabinet to visit the country was set to make the trip to Kyiv days after the US president said his administration wanted an agreement with Ukraine for access to the resources in return for aiding in its defence against Russia’s invasion.

“I am sending Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “This War MUST and WILL END SOON – Too much Death and Destruction. The US has spent BILLIONS of Dollars Globally, with little to show.”

Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv earlier Monday that he planned to meet with “serious people” from the Trump administration in Ukraine before the Munich Security Conference, which begins on Friday.

Zelensky has suggested willingness to an agreement securing more US backing in exchange for some of Ukraine’s rare earths and other minerals. “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” he told Reuters in an interview published last Friday.