Coming to discuss fossils: The first Trump official to visit Ukraine will be the Treasury Secretary

The first official visit to Ukraine by a member of the new U.S. administration will be made by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant. He will travel to Kyiv to discuss U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.

This was reported by Bloomberg, citing sources.

Bessant is expected to arrive in Kyiv this week.

Bloomberg also recalled that on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that he planned to meet with “serious people” from Donald Trump’s administration in Ukraine ahead of the Munich Security Conference, which begins this Friday. Zelensky also expressed willingness to strike a deal ensuring U.S. support in exchange for access to Ukraine’s rare earth metals and other valuable minerals.

“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s make a deal—we are all for it,” Zelensky told Reuters in an interview published last Friday.

Ukraine holds significant reserves of uranium and several critical minerals, including titanium, lithium, and graphite. Ukrainian authorities estimate their total value in the trillions of dollars.

Today, Donald Trump stated that Ukraine had agreed to transfer rare earth metals worth $500 billion to the U.S. as payment for the military aid Washington had already provided to Kyiv.

However, Zelensky denied this, saying that he does not intend to hand over Ukraine’s mineral resources to the U.S. government or other Western partners. Instead, he emphasized that any agreements would involve joint development in “close partnership.”