The administration’s current efforts to strike a deal between Ukraine and Russia have failed to resonate with the former country, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected a proposal this month. Russia and Ukraine have now been warring with each other for three years. Amid conflict between Zelensky and President Donald Trump, Bessent detailed how the U.S.’s deal, which calls for U.S. investment in Ukraine’s rare earth mineral projects to recoup the U.S. military aid provided to Ukraine, is part of Trump’s “long-art negotiating strategy.”

TRUMP, TRUDEAU TALK UKRAINE WAR AHEAD OF CONFLICT’S THREE-YEAR MARK

“So the first part of this is a partnership between Ukraine and the U.S. that involves strategic minerals, energy and state-owned enterprises, where we set up a partnership, and we are only looking forward,” Bessent said on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo. “It is a win-win, President Trump created this idea himself. It is a win-win, we make money if the Ukrainian people make money, and I believe that with the United States of America, our know-how, our businesses willing to to come in and provide capital, that we can accelerate the Ukrainian growth trajectory and take in substantial money for the U.S. taxpayers and get the Ukrainian economy on a great growth trajectory.”

Bessent further explained that while this deal does not include a security guarantee involving the U.S. military, it does have “an economic security guarantee,” explaining that the U.S. will have more interest in helping Ukraine’s economy if more U.S. companies are involved in the foreign nation’s country. He added that this part of the deal would aid both U.S. taxpayers and Ukraine residents, and he found it unfortunate that Zelensky is currently being uncooperative with the deal.

However, Bessent expressed confidence that a deal will be reached with Ukraine, and that this would send “a strong signal to Russian leadership” that the U.S. is seriously involved with Ukraine and its people. 

Amid Trump’s frustrations with Zelensky, the Washington Examiner’s Byron York has suggested that they could be part of a plan by the U.S. president, as “this is the kind of thing that Trump does to irritate some parties” while appealing to others. Trump has claimed that Zelensky “could have made a deal” to end the war and that the Ukrainian president “should have never started it,” even though Russia invaded Ukraine, which York cited.

On Saturday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov revealed new details about a meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, stating that “a dialogue on strategic stability and arms control is possible when we see visible shifts for the better in American policy.” He added that pulling this meeting off will require “the most intensive preparatory work.”