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WASHINGTON — President Trump said Thursday that a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine must happen before too long — while visiting UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer committed to deploying peacekeeping troops in a joint mission with France.
“It will either be fairly soon, or it won’t be at all,” Trump said of a possible deal to end Europe’s bloodiest war in 80 years — one day before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visits the White House.
“We’re working very hard to get that war brought to an end. I think we’ve made a lot of progress, and I think it’s moving along pretty rapidly.”
Trump and Zelensky will sign a framework mineral rights deal Friday that will grant the US a stake in developing Ukraine’s rare earth elements, which Trump claimed would “effectively be reimbursed” for war aid — despite uncertainty about the timeframe for extracting the material, as well as whether any proceeds would actually reach Washington’s coffers.
“We’ll be digging. We’ll be dig, dig, digging. Dig, we must,” Trump said, acknowledging it may take years to retrieve the resources.
“A big utility in New York, Con Edison, they used to have a [slogan], ‘Dig, we must.’ And we will be digging.”
Meanwhile, Starmer said that “the UK is ready to boots on the ground and planes in the air” to keep the peace should the war be brought to a conclusion.
The cordial visit was threatened at one point when a British journalist asked about Trump’s proposal to annex Canada, thereby depriving King Charles III of one of his royal realms.
“I think you’re trying to find a divide between us,” Starmer deflected, “that doesn’t exist.”
