WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that a freshly inked economic partnership with Ukraine to develop its natural resources "could" serve as a security guarantee for Kyiv as it defends against Russia's war.

Trump said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral that it would be "a very good thing, if we can produce a deal, that you sign it, because Russia is much bigger and much stronger."

"Russia is just chugging forward. It's a big, strong country, by the way, not nearly as strong as the United States," he said during a NewsNation town hall that he called into.

Asked by a presenter if the deal would "inhibit" Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump said "it could" but maintained that his impetus for agreeing to the pact was to recoup the cost of previously supplied military assistance.

The US and Ukraine, just hours earlier, announced that a critical minerals deal had been signed, following months of often fraught negotiations.

Under the agreement, the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund is set to be established. The US Treasury Department said the economic partnership would allow the two countries to work collaboratively to accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery, highlighting Washington's "significant financial and material support" to Kyiv since the war with Russia began in 2022.

Ukraine's Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the fund would be used to invest in projects to extract useful fossil fuels and oil and gas, as well as in related infrastructure or recycling projects to be jointly decided by the two countries.