Secretary of State Marco Rubio accuses Zelensky of trying to hustle US in peace talks, rare-earth deal

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has charged that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is trying to “hustle” the US by claiming in public that he unilaterally rejected a deal to sign away half of his nation’s rare earth minerals — while telling American negotiators in private that he would discuss the matter with Kyiv’s legislature.Rubio said the misrepresentation enraged him, Vice President JD Vance, and Russia and Ukraine special envoy Keith Kellogg after the trio met Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference last weekend and discussed the finer points of the $500 billion economic investment deal, which the Trump administration has described as a security guarantee to Kyiv.“I was personally very upset,” the diplomat told independent journalist Catherine Herridge in a video interview posted on X Thursday night.“We discussed this issue about the mineral rights, and we explained to them, ‘Look, we want to be in joint venture with you, not because we’re trying to steal from your country, but because we think that’s actually a security guarantee.'”Zelensky told the American trio that he wanted to make the deal happen and that it “makes all the sense in the world” — but needed to run it by Kyiv’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for approval.“I read two days later that Zelensky is out there saying, ‘I rejected the deal.

I told him, “No way,” that we’re not doing that.’ That’s not what happened in that meeting,” Rubio said.Trump, 78, lashed out this week at the Ukrainian leader, disparaging him as a “dictator” and denying Russian President Vladimir Putin’s role in starting the war by invading Moscow’s neighbor in February 2022.“He sent a message that he’s not going to get gamed here,” Rubio said of the president’s comments.“He’s willing to work on peace because he cares about Ukraine, and he hopes Zelensky will be a partner in that, and not someone who’s out there putting this sort of counter-messagi...