Discussing a potential trip to Washington, Zelenskyy said teams were still working out details and noted he first planned to visit London to speak with Starmer.
Zelenskyy also said he would seek to clarify whether Trump would continue to arm Ukraine after signing the framework deal, something the U.S. president hinted at on Tuesday.
“I will understand everything after I talk to Trump. For me, the most important thing is to find out will the U.S. stop military aid or not,” he said. “If its stops, will we be able to buy weapons directly from the U.S., maybe using Russian frozen assets?”
More generally, Zelenskyy explained the deal should not be seen as Trump winning a big debt clawback as it would focus only on a series of joint future projects for future payments. Trump’s multibillion-dollar demands had been dropped from the latest draft and Zelenskyy said he was only prepared to discuss future arms payments to the U.S., not past ones.
“The current version looks not bad. All the principal issues we had with it are gone. The main thing is that we’re no longer debtors. We don’t owe $500 billion, or $300 billion, or even $100 billion. And this was the key for me as if we agreed to that, this would open Pandora’s box,” he said.
The idea behind the framework deal is that Ukraine and the U.S. will co-own an investment fund with a 50/50 contribution, working on resource projects in Ukraine, with the proceeds being funneled back into rebuilding the country.
Even though it is only a preliminary deal, some European countries are hoping this level of involvement will encourage Trump to step up in terms of defending Ukraine.