Trump to present minerals deal to Putin in Alaska

Donald Trump is preparing to offer Vladimir Putin access to rare earth minerals to incentivise him to end the war in Ukraine.

The US president will arrive at the much-anticipated meeting with his Russian counterpart on Friday armed with a number of money-making opportunities for Putin.

They will include opening up Alaska’s natural resources to Moscow and lifting some of the American sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry, The Telegraph can reveal.

Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, is understood to be among administration figures briefing Mr Trump ahead of his sit-down with Putin in Anchorage. Mr Bessent is exploring the economic trade-offs the US can make with Russia in order to expedite a ceasefire agreement.

Proposals include giving Putin access to the rare earth minerals in the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia.

Mr Trump said Putin would face “severe consequences” if he did not agree to end the war in Ukraine during their meeting on Friday.

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

Mr Trump said: “If the first one goes okay, 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.”

Mr Zelensky said Mr Trump supported security guarantees for Ukraine.

The two leaders attended a virtual summit along with other European leaders on Wednesday.

“There should be security guarantees,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference alongside Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor. “President Trump said that he supports this and America’s readiness to take part.”

Sir Keir Starmer said his so-called “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.