(Reuters) – The United States has reduced its cost estimate for the assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022 to about $100 billion from $300 billion, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking a bilateral minerals deal as part of a peace push to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. Trump also sees it as a way to recover billions of dollars spent on military assistance to Kyiv, although the aid was not a loan.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday that talks with the U.S. regarding a minerals deal were “positive”, and that more meetings were expected.
The White House did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.
Last month, the Trump administration proposed a new, more expansive minerals deal with Ukraine, which gives Ukraine no future security guarantees but requires it to place in a joint investment fund all income from the exploitation of natural resources by state and private enterprises across Ukrainian territory.
(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi in Bengaluru; Editing by Tom Hogue and Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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