Trump Administration prepares the first sale of military equipment to Ukraine | Ukraine

The Trump administration will approved its first sale of military equipment in Ukraine since Donald Trump's office in order to indicate that the mineral contract signed by the two countries this week could open a way for new weapons deliveries.

The Foreign Ministry has certified a proposed license to export “USD 50 million or more” (37.6 million GBP) for defense hardware and services for Ukraine. It would be the first permission of its kind, since Trump held all the Ukraine -related military aid shortly after taking office.

The Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday evening that the signing of the long-discussed mineral agreement to much better conditions for Ukraine than previously expected was due to the meeting, which he released with Trump on the sidelines of the Pope's funeral on Saturday.

“Now we have the first result of the Vatican meeting that makes it really historical. We are waiting for other results of the meeting,” he said in his nightly video address.

Zelenskyy welcomed the deal as “really the same” and said that it had created “a chance for a significant investment in Ukraine”.

A high -ranking adjutant said Kyiv hoped that arms deliveries would quickly resume. “There is no direct link in which” you get these special weapons “, but it opens up the opportunity for parallel conversations about the purchase of weapons,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, an adjutant Zelenskyy, during an interview in Kyiv. “The American side is now open to these discussions,” he added.

The first deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine, Yulia Svyrydenko, signed the Agreement in Washington together with the US Finance Minister Scott Bessent on Wednesday. High -ranking US officials said reporters said that they expected the Ukraine parliament to be ratified within a week. In the agreement, a joint fund is set up by the two countries, which is financed from new licenses to take advantage of the deposits of critical minerals, oil and gas.

After a few weeks when Trump seemed to be tough in Russia and hard, the authorities in Kyiv hope that the dynamics may change. Zelenskyy said on Thursday that the mineral contract “significantly changed” in the process and it was “a really same agreement that allows investments in Ukraine”.

Above all, it excludes money money from his previously a military and humanitarian aid, from which Trump had repeatedly said he hoped to repeat. In addition, it is expressly stated that it should be implemented in such a way that the integration of Ukraine into the EU is not hindered and that US companies do not have a monopoly on shops in Ukraine, but only maintain the right to take part in competitive offers on fair conditions.

The final document followed for almost three months after the first outline of Bessent brought to Kyiv and rejected by Zelenskyy, just as much punishable. A later signing ceremony was planned in the White House in February, but collapsed after Trump and JD Vance Zelenskyy had involved in the Oval Office, which became an abrupt conclusion of conversations and the Ukrainian president to go.

When asked how Kyiv was able to improve the conditions of the mineral contract, Podolyak claimed that the actual discussions in a completely different tone for some public statements from Trump had gone in a completely different tone.

“This is just the style of it [US] Administration, it is very aggressive with communication. They leave leaks of the most terrible conditions and so on, but in reality they negotiate normally and they can achieve a result, “he said.

Podolyak said that Kyiv, because the supplied US weapons would now have to be bought, would have to be more selective, which she demands from the USA. “I think we will quickly understand what types of weapons the unique weapons that the United States have. Carefully choose. If we can produce our own drones, for example, we will do this here. But there are some critical types of weapons that only produce the USA, and nobody else,” he said.

Zelenskyy previously expressed interest in spending tens of billions of dollars for the purchase of Patriot Air Defense Systems from the USA, which indicates that this could be done either through the financing of European allies or by the planned mineral fund.

It was not immediately clear which weapons or services were now mentioned in the table. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs must inform the congress of considerable sales of armor and military services in accordance with the Waffen Export Control Act.

The approval was requested for a direct commercial sale, which approves the transfer of “defense articles or defense services as part of a license issued by the US industry to a foreign buyer”. The intended sale was first reported by the Kyiv Post.

The last aid package for Ukraine was among the bidges administration when Congress approved USD 1 billion for expenses when the outgoing administration fell the military aid before Trump took office.

The reaction of Russia to the mineral contract was subdued, with the exception of the Hawkian former President Dmitry Medvedev, who claimed that it was a disaster for Zelenskyy. “Trump broke the Kyiv regime so far that they had to pay for US help with mineral resources,” he wrote on telegram. “Now [Ukrainians] must pay for military deliveries with the national assets of a disappeared country. “