Talks to try to bring about a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine took a new turn Wednesday as Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky discussed U.S. ‘ownership’ of its nuclear plants.
The new element came in a joint statement issued by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and National Security Advisor Michael Waltz hours after Trump spoke by phone with the Ukrainian president.
The potential energy cooperation came up amid a stalled minerals deal that Trump says will provide security for Ukraine and allow it to reimburse the U.S. for billions spent arming and aiding the country.
‘President Trump also discussed Ukraine’s electrical supply and nuclear power plants. He said that the United States could be very helpful in running those plants with its electricity and utility expertise,’ according to the statement.
‘American ownership of those plants would be the best protection for that infrastructure and support for Ukrainian energy infrastructure,’ it said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt got asked whether the U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal was still on the table.
‘And now we have moved beyond the economic minerals deal. We are at a place of peace. We’re at a partial ceasefire, and we’re moving towards a full ceasefire and a long standing peace in this conflict,’ she said.
Trump first mentioned that deal as a way to extract valuable rare earth minerals from Ukraine.
The Ukrainian side has begun raising the importance of the Zaporizhzhia power plant, now offline and controlled by Russia, as important to being able to power the energy-intensive efforts to mine the minerals.
The statement also mentioned the partial ceasefire that was a result of a phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Trump said on Wednesday that he and Putin ‘agreed to an immediate Ceasefire on all Energy and Infrastructure.’
But the Rubio-Waltz statement didn’t contain the word ‘infrastructure.’
‘The two leaders also agreed on a partial ceasefire against energy. Technical teams will meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to discuss broadening the ceasefire to the Black Sea on the way to a full ceasefire. They agreed this could be the first step toward the full end of the war and ensuring security,’ it said.
Zelensky about the children who had gone missing from Ukraine during the war, including the ones that had been abducted. President Trump promised to work closely with both parties to help make sure those children were returned home.’
That is a matter that Zelensky raised during his previous disastrous Oval Office meeting with Trump.
Leavitt got asked about the termination of a State Department contract that funded a program at Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab that tracked the abducted children.
She said she had ‘no updates about that.’
Lawmakers raised concerns about the deletion of a database that tracked satelilite imagery and biometric data on as many as 35,000 Ukrainian children who were taken.