US President Donald Trump has said it was up to Europe to offer security guarantees to Ukraine, declining to make US promises as part of a deal for Ukraine's natural resources.
Ukraine has been seeking US security guarantees as part of the deal, cast by Mr Trump as a payment for US aid to Kyiv during the war.
"I'm not going to make security guarantees beyond very much," Mr Trump said at a cabinet meeting.
"We're going to have Europe do that because... Europe is their next-door neighbor, but we're going to make sure everything goes well."
Mr Trump also said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will be coming to Washington on Friday to sign the agreement.
"President Zelensky is going to be coming on Friday, that is now confirmed," Mr Trump said.
The US President also brushed aside Ukraine's aspirations to join NATO, again repeating Russia's stance that the issue caused the three-year-old war.
"NATO - you can forget about," Mr Trump said when asked about a potential deal to end the war.
"I think that's probably the reason the whole thing started."
Earlier, a White House official had raised doubts about whether an invitation to Mr Zelensky to meet Mr Trump would make sense given Mr Zelensky's comments that the minerals deal was not complete.
"If the Ukrainian leader says the deal isn't finalised, I don’t see why an invitation would make sense," the official told Reuters.
"There’s an expectation that his coming is to recognise a final position (on the minerals deal) and he is not at a final position in his own words in this new wording."
The official said Mr Zelensky's latest comments from Kyiv suggest the minerals deal was not completed.
Mr Zelensky said that he had reached a "preliminary" deal with the US on minerals.
Mr Trump yesterday told reporters he had heard Mr Zelensky was coming to the White House on Friday with the expectation that the minerals deal would be signed. He did not say Mr Zelensky had been formally invited.
The deal is central to Ukrainian attempts to ensure strong support from Mr Trump as he seeks a quick end to Russia's war in Ukraine, with US-Russian talks that have so far excluded Kyiv set to continue tomorrow.
"The main thing for me is we are not debtors. There is no $500 billion debt in the agreement, nor $350, nor $100 billion because that would be unfair," Mr Zelensky told a news briefing of the agreement.
Mr Trump has cast the deal as a repayment for billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv during the war. Mr Zelensky has been asking for security guarantees in exchange for the mineral rights, but it is unclear whether those demands have been successful.
"This agreement is part of our larger agreements with the United States. This agreement could be part of future security guarantees ... an agreement is an agreement, but we need to understand the broader vision," Mr Zelensky said.
"This deal could be a great success or it could pass quietly. And the big success depends on our conversation with President Trump."
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Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal said Washington would commit to supporting Kyiv's efforts to obtain security guarantees under the finalised deal, but the Americans offered no security pledges of their own.
While discussions have been taking place on the minerals deal, the US and Russia have begun bilateral talks.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said tomorrow’s talks in Istanbul would be on resolving bilateral disputes that are part of a wider dialogue the sides see as crucial to ending the Ukraine war.
Mr Trump told reporters yesterday that Mr Zelensky wanted to come to Washington on Friday to sign a "very big deal".
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Mr Shmyhal said Ukraine's government would authorise the agreed wording later today so it could be signed. He described it as a "preliminary" agreement.
"After the Ukrainian president and the US president agree on security guarantees, agree on how we tie this preliminary agreement to security guarantees from the United States for our country, in the presence of (both) presidents, a representative of the Ukrainian government will sign this preliminary agreement," he said.
A copy of a draft agreement, seen by Reuters and dated 25 February said: "The Government of the United States of America supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace."
Mr Shmyhal, outlining the agreement in televised comments, said Kyiv would contribute 50% of "all proceeds received from the future monetisation of all relevant state-owned natural resource assets and relevant infrastructure."
Those proceeds would go into a fund under the joint control of the United States and Ukraine, he said, adding that no decision about the governance of the fund could be taken without Kyiv's agreement.
"Already existing deposits, facilities, licenses and rents are not subject to discussion when creating this fund," he added.
