Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the US dropped its demand for Kyiv to commit to paying $500-billion as part of talks to give Washington a cut of the country’s mineral wealth.

But Zelenskyy insisted at a news conference on Sunday that US military support must be part of any deal, in a sign of how far both countries are from reaching an agreement.

US President Donald Trump and his deputies have pressured Zelenskyy to accept the deal on tapping revenues from Ukraine’s mineral wealth and other assets. The plan was first presented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Kyiv on February 12.

Ukraine’s leader rejected it, saying the proposal didn’t offer the robust security guarantees Ukraine seeks against Moscow’s aggression.

The White House sees the minerals deal as an integral part of its plan to broker a ceasefire in the three-year war after the US held direct talks with Russia in Saudi Arabia last week. That meeting raised fears that Ukraine would be shut out of negotiations over its own future.

The deal must be “win-win” for Ukraine and the US, Zelenskyy said on Sunday.

Trump has said he wants the equivalent of $500-billion to compensate the US for its previous support to Kyiv. Bloomberg News reported on Saturday that Ukraine sees the actual assistance provided by the US since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 as closer to $90-billion.

Zelenskyy said he rejected the US argument that American companies doing business in Ukraine would itself serve as a form of security guarantee.

Bessent discussed the contours of the potential agreement on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, saying the US can help propel Ukraine onto a “great growth trajectory".

“The first part of this is a partnership between Ukraine and the US that involves strategic minerals, energy, and state owned enterprises, where we set up a partnership and we are only looking forward,” Bessent said. Instead of a military guarantee, the US is offering an “economic security guarantee,” he added.

Zelenskyy’s top adviser Andriy Yermak said on Telegram on Sunday that talks with the US were advancing.

Disputes over the framing of the deal led to escalating rhetoric last week, with Trump calling his Ukrainian counterpart a “dictator” while Zelenskyy accused him of parroting Russian disinformation.

Ukraine has no major rare earth reserves that are internationally recognized as economically viable, despite reports it’s sitting on a $10-trillion trove of mineral deposits.

And while it has commercial mines of critical minerals like titanium and gallium, they aren’t likely to be worth the sums Trump has floated.

Zelenskyy said on Sunday that talks on the deal will allow Ukraine to conduct a real survey of its minerals reserves, including their ownership status. He said he didn’t rule out Kyiv retaking assets that have been obtained illegally.