The Trump administration is preparing to approve its first sale of military equipment to Ukraine since Donald Trump took office, signaling that the recently signed minerals deal between the two countries may lead to renewed weapons shipments, according to The Guardian.

The State Department has approved a proposed license to export defense hardware and services worth "$50 million or more" (£37.6 million) to Ukraine, as detailed in a communication sent to the US Committee on Foreign Relations. This marks the first authorization of this kind since President Trump suspended all military aid to Ukraine shortly after taking office.

Zelensky links minerals pact to Vatican meeting with Trump

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated Thursday evening that the recently signed minerals deal, which included significantly more favorable terms for Ukraine than initially anticipated, came as a direct result of his meeting with Donald Trump during the pope's funeral last Saturday, according to his remarks.

“Now we have the first result of the Vatican meeting, which makes it really historic. We are waiting for other results of the meeting,” Zelensky said in a video address. He hailed the agreement as "truly equal" and said that it created a significant investment opportunity in Ukraine.

“There is no direct link where it’s written that ‘you will receive these particular weapons’, but it opens the possibility for parallel talks on the purchase of weapons,” Zelensky aide Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview, adding that the United States is now open to such discussions.

Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent formally signed the agreement during a ceremony in Washington on Wednesday.

Ratification within seven days

Senior US officials briefing reporters expressed confidence that Ukraine's parliament would complete ratification of the agreement within seven days, noting that the deal establishes a bilateral fund financed through revenue from newly issued licenses for extracting critical minerals, oil, and gas deposits located in Ukrainian territory, as outlined in the agreement's terms.

The final document emerged after nearly three months of intense negotiations, during which the initial outline, brought to Kiev by Bessent, was dismissed by Zelensky, who deemed it excessively punitive and unacceptable to sign.

A subsequent signing ceremony was scheduled to take place at the White House last February, but it fell apart when Trump and JD Vance confronted Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, leading to a sudden breakdown in discussions and resulting in the Ukrainian president being escorted out.

US negotiation tactics and future weapon requests

When questioned about how Kiev had managed to secure better terms in the minerals deal, Podolyak explained that the real negotiations had unfolded in a manner starkly contrasting with some of Trump’s more aggressive public remarks.

“That’s just the style of this [US] administration; it’s very aggressive with communications. They will allow leaks of the most horrible conditions and so on, but then in reality they negotiate normally and you can achieve a result,” he explained, adding that “they just use this aggression to try to improve their starting position."

Podolyak noted that since the US would now require payment for supplied weapons, Kiev would have to be more strategic in determining which requests to make.

“I think fairly quickly we will understand which types of weapons to carefully select the unique weapons the US has. Because if we can produce our own drones, for example, then we will do that here. But there are some critical weapon types which only the US produces and nobody else,” he noted.

It was not immediately clear what weapons or services the more modest $50 million now on the table referred to. The State Department is required to notify Congress of significant sales of armaments and military services under the Arms Export Control Act.

Approval was requested for a direct commercial sale, a process that permits US defense contractors to transfer military equipment or services to a foreign entity under a State Department-issued license, with the Kiev Post being the first to break the news of this proposed transaction.