WASHINGTON 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he hears Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be visiting him on Friday, suggesting an openness to the sit-down amid ongoing negotiations over a critical minerals deal.

"I hear that he's coming in Friday, certainly it's okay with me, if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that's a big deal, very big deal," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to the agreement that would see Ukraine share a portion of its critical mineral revenues with the US.

"It's a very big deal. It could be a trillion-dollar deal. It could be whatever, but it's rare earths and other things. And look, we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars on Ukraine and Russia fighting a war that should have never, ever happened," he added.

Trump said Monday that he expects to meet Zelenskyy at the White House as soon as this week to sign the agreement, which he described as being "very close" to completion.

Ukraine has so far declined to sign the agreement as negotiations continue over major sticking points, including security guarantees for the country and whether the mineral rights would be exchanged solely for future US military aid or whether they would cover previous installments that were given to Kyiv by the Biden administration.

'We want to get that money back'

The US president continued to assail past tranches of economic and military assistance provided by his predecessor, saying ex-President Joe "Biden was throwing money around like it's cotton candy."

"We want to be secured. We want to get that money back. We're helping the country to a very, very big problem, a problem like very few people have had. Shouldn't have had this problem, because it shouldn't have happened, but it did happen, so we have to straighten it out, but the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back plus," he added.

Ukraine is sitting on massive reserves of critical rare earth minerals that could total trillions of dollars. It holds about 5% of the world’s total mineral resources, according to a 2024 World Economic Forum report.

Besides having one of the largest confirmed reserves of lithium, Ukraine boasts semiconductor-grade neon gas that is critical for chip production, beryllium, uranium, zirconium, apatite, iron ore and manganese.​​​​​​​

US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, who has rejected Ukraine's entry into NATO due to the alliance's mutual defense article, maintained that the US would defend any economic investment it makes in Ukraine’s mineral resources.

"This could mean trillions, not only for the Ukrainian people, but for us and for stability for the region. And that economic investment is one of the best security guarantees that Ukraine could hope for," he said during a Monday morning interview with Fox News.

Trump said he would also "like to buy minerals on Russian land too, if we can."

"They have very good rare earth also. They both do, I would say that, and oil and gas too. Look, it's a great thing. If we sell, it's great for Russia too, because we could do deals there. They have very valuable land that isn't utilized, so something like that could take place," he said.

The president denied looking at lifting any sanctions on Russia amid ongoing talks to end the Kremlin's war on Ukraine.