Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced his readiness to sign a minerals deal with the United States and this could be the first step towards security guarantees.

“I said that we should sign this document and we are ready for this and this will be the first step towards security guarantees,” the president said in an interview with Fox News.

At the same time, he added that this is not enough.

“I think so, maybe I don’t know something, I don’t know some details, and that’s why I wanted to share this with the president … and hear him again, because he has a plan on how to stop Putin,” he noted.

Zelenskyy stressed that a ceasefire without security guarantees is a very sensitive issue for our people.

“And I speak as the president of the people who have been fighting for three years and they just want to hear that America is on our side and that America will stay with us, not with Russia,” the president said.

He also noted that the United States is the largest donor of support and peace, “but we must not lose Europe.”

“And they also want to know the next steps, we must be very open to understand how to stop the war,” the president said.

“I think the United States really wanted this agreement, and we were not against this agreement, but we wanted to understand what part in the security guarantees this agreement would take and what the next steps would be,” Zelenskyy explained.

“Many terrible things have been brought to us by this war. That is why we do not want any surprises. Yes, that is why we want to be very honest with our partners,” he added, stressing once again that the Ukrainian side is ready to sign the document.