Ukraine LIVE: Trump ‘demands £400bn’ as peace talks in Saudi Arabia | World | News

The contract Donald Trump’s team presented to Volodymr Zelensky amid talks to end Russia‘s war in Ukraine reportedly goes way beyond previously reported demands for control of critical minerals, prompting panic in Kyiv.

The Telegraph reported that the US President’s demands for a $500bn (£400bn) “payback” from Ukraine for supplying arms over almost three years of fighting also covers various other assets, from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas, as well as the country’s larger resource base.

The outlet said it had obtained a draft of the “Privileged & Confidential” pre-decisional contract, marked and dated Feb 7, 2025, which proposes that the two countries should form a joint investment fund with a view to ensuring that “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.

The newspaper described the document, which arrived at Zelensky’s office a week ago, as amounting to the “US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity”, and claims it implied an impossibly high burden of reparations be imposed on Kyiv.

It was met with consternation and panic among Ukrainian officials, the outlet says.

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