Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent became the first senior Trump administration official to visit Ukraine, arriving on Wednesday for talks on an agreement that would trade access to Ukrainian natural resources for continued military support.
Mr. Bessent’s trip comes amid anxiety in Kyiv and among American allies about whether U.S. support for the Ukrainian war effort will be maintained with Mr. Trump’s return to the White House.
In opening remarks at a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, Mr. Bessent said that “President Trump has a plan to end this war,” and that “we would like an economic cooperation agreement. In exchange for this agreement, the U.S. will continue to provide material support for the Ukraine.”
Mr. Zelensky described the agreement as a “detailed plan” on strategic partnership between the two countries that would include opportunities for American businesses, and said that Ukraine wanted investment in its resources.
“I’m thankful to the president and his message that he will support Ukraine,” Mr. Zelensky said of Mr. Trump. “And I know that he is strong man, and I am sure that he will push Putin.”
President Trump said Wednesday that he had held a “highly productive” call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to begin working toward a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Mr. Zelensky held a separate call with Mr. Trump.
Mr. Zelensky said on X that he and Mr. Trump on Wednesday had discussed a plan that would secure continued American support in exchange for access to Ukrainian natural resources. The two discussed “preparation of a new document on security, economic cooperation, and resource partnership,” he wrote. He said that they had a long and meaningful conversation and that they were “charting our next steps to stop Russian aggression and ensure a lasting, reliable peace.
“As President Trump said, let’s get it done,” Mr. Zelensky wrote.
Mr. Bessent said his trip to Ukraine “should be a strong signal that the war is a top priority for the Trump administration.” He added that his visit was intended to ensure that “the American people understand what we are doing here.”
The Trump administration has already sought an arrangement for the United States to secure rights to Ukrainian natural resources, including critical minerals, as a guarantee for further U.S. assistance.
Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday that he was sending Mr. Bessent to Ukraine because “this war must and will end soon — too much death and destruction.”
Mr. Trump, who has made curtailing spending in a variety of areas a focus of the early days of his new administration, also wrote that the visit would touch on American assistance to Ukraine. The United States, he added, had spent billions of dollars “with too little to show” for it.
Mr. Zelensky said he welcomed the visit by Mr. Bessent. “We are already prepared for meetings with representatives of the United States — negotiations will begin soon,” Mr. Zelensky said in his evening address to Ukrainians on Tuesday.
Mr. Trump’s focus on securing the mining rights was reflected in the choice of making Mr. Bessent the first high-level visit to Ukraine, rather than a senior security or military official to discuss the war.
Hours after Mr. Trump announced the visit, Russia launched an aerial attack on Ukraine that included a volley of ballistic missiles aimed at Kyiv, the capital.
The missile strike, which took place shortly before 5 a.m., killed one person and wounded four others, including a 9-year-old girl, according to the Kyiv city administration.
Falling debris from interceptions by air defense missiles over Kyiv scattered debris that caused fires in buildings in four districts, and explosions echoed through the capital for several minutes.
The missile volley in Ukraine also came hours after Russia released an American prisoner, Marc Fogel, in what Mr. Trump said he hoped would be an initial step toward negotiating an end to the war.
Mr. Zelensky, in a post on X, also voiced support for ending the war. “This Russian terror against Ukraine will not stop on its own,” he wrote. “Right now, we need the unity and support of all our partners in the fight for a just end to this war.”
Overall, Russia fired six ballistic missiles and 123 exploding drones at Ukraine overnight, after a period of nearly a month in which Russia has largely refrained from using ballistic missiles. Fighting also continued along the front line in eastern Ukraine, where Russian forces resumed assaults.
In his meeting with Mr. Bessent, Mr. Zelensky mentioned the missile barrage earlier on Wednesday. Ukraine, he said, relied on American air defenses. To defend against Russia’s attack on Wednesday, Mr. Zelensky said, Ukraine had fired 10 Patriot interceptors, noting that the cost for this defensive action ran to millions of dollars.
The Ukrainian military reported that 149 aerial bombs were dropped from airplanes and more than 2,000 short-range drone strikes were fired at frontline positions.
In another missile attack on Ukraine, on Tuesday, Russia struck the country’s main natural gas producing region, Poltava, continuing assaults on the country’s energy infrastructure.
Beyond Ukraine, the Polish military reported on Tuesday that a Russian military plane briefly entered its airspace, although it said that it was in contact with its Russian counterparts. The error was attributed to a problem with the plane’s navigation system.