Trump to offer Putin minerals for peace

Mr Bessent is exploring the economic trade-offs the US can make with Russia in order to expedite a ceasefire agreement.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday, Mr Trump said Putin would face “severe consequences” if he did not agree to end the war in Ukraine at their meeting on Friday.

The US leader also revealed his intention to seek an immediate second meeting with Putin, this time involving Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, after their one-on-one talks in Alaska.

Mr Trump said: “If the first one goes ok, we’ll have a quick second one. I would like to do it almost immediately, and we’ll have a quick second meeting between President Putin and President Zelensky and myself, if they’d like to have me there.”

The US president had attended a virtual summit with Mr Zelensky and other European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron and Freidrich Merz as part of a series of calls ahead of the Alaska meeting.

Speaking after the talks, Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump backed security guarantees for Ukraine. “There should be security guarantees,” he told a press conference alongside Mr Merz, the German chancellor.

In the past months, Washington has kept security guarantees – some kind of commitment that America would be willing to enforce the terms of any peace deal – for Ukraine off the table, despite it being a key demand from Kyiv.

The UK, France and Germany have been working towards creating a peacekeeping force without the direct involvement of the Americans but had hoped the US may offer support such as air cover.

Offering an update on the plans following Wednesday’s talks, Sir Keir said his “coalition of the willing” was ready to implement a ceasefire plan as soon as a peace deal was agreed.

The plans “are now ready in a form that can be used if we get to that ceasefire”, the Prime Minister said, adding that “real progress” on security guarantees for Ukraine had been made.

European leaders including Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said the calls with Mr Trump were “positive”. After the calls, Mr Zelensky said Putin was “bluffing” when he said “he does not care about the sanctions and that they’re not working”.

Ukraine is thought to hold 10 per cent of the world’s reserves of lithium, used in the production of batteries. Two of its largest lithium deposits are in areas held by Russia, and Putin has staked his claim to the valuable minerals found in the regions his forces occupy.

“There are a range of incentives, in which a potential mineral/rare earth deal could be one,” a source with knowledge of the proposals told The Telegraph.

In May, the US signed a rare earth mineral deal with Kyiv, allowing it to exploit Ukraine’s ample natural resources. Washington will need to establish new mining operations, which could be accelerated by Russian co-operation.

The president’s America First policy has seen him strike several mineral deals since his return to the Oval Office, most notably with Ukraine and Kazakhstan.

Other incentives include lifting export bans on parts and equipment needed to service Russian planes, swathes of which have fallen into disrepair.

Western countries have restricted Moscow’s access to crucial spare components and other equipment since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, forcing airlines and the military to cannibalise old aircraft for replacement parts.

Lifting sanctions on Russian aircraft could prove lucrative for the American manufacturer Boeing. With a fleet of more than 700 planes dominated by Airbus and Boeing, Russian airlines could return to the American suppliers for critical parts and maintenance.

Recent major incidents highlight an urgent need to prevent the fleet degrading. In late July, a Soviet-era Antonov An-24, built in 1976, crashed in the country’s far east, killing all 48 people on board. Days later, the Russian flag carrier Aeroflot grounded dozens of flights following a crippling cyber attack.

Mr Trump is also considering offering Russia opportunities to tap into the valuable natural resources in the strait that separates it from the US. Alaska, separated from Russia by just three miles of the Bering Strait, is estimated to hold significant undiscovered oil and gas reserves, including 13 per cent of the world’s oil.

UK government sources told The Telegraph that such incentives could be acceptable to Europe so long as it was not seen as rewarding Russia. “The sense is that it has to be presented to align with public opinion around this, it cannot be seen as a reward for Putin,” one said.

Israel’s occupation of the West Bank could be used as a model for ending the war. Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, similar to Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory.

The idea was raised in discussions between Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s special envoy and his Russian counterparts, according to The Times.

The White House is tempering expectations ahead of the summit on Friday, portraying it as a “listening exercise” for the president.

“This is really a feel-out meeting, a little bit,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday, predicting he would know “probably in the first two minutes” if Putin was serious about peace.

The Russian president’s aides described the tete-a-tete primarily as a discussion on “Russian-American relations”, hinting at boosting trade co-operation.

A White House official said: “We do not comment on deliberative conversations that may or may not be happening. From the beginning, the president has been clear about his commitment to ending the bloodshed and achieving a full and comprehensive ceasefire.

“As the president stated, everyone agrees this war must come to a close, and that is what he is working towards.”