LONDON, February 22. /TASS/. Vladimir Zelensky is not yet ready to sign a minerals deal with the United States, the UK’s Sky News said, citing sources in Zelensky’s close circle.

"The agreement is not yet ready to be signed, there are a number of problematic issues, and in the current form of the draft, the president is not ready to accept it," the source said. According to him, "Today, the drafts do not reflect a partnership in the agreement and contain only unilateral commitments by Ukraine."

Fox News journalist Jacqui Heinrich noted on the X social network that the Ukrainian side had introduced amendments to the agreement and submitted them to the US side.

Earlier, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources, that "an agreement could be signed as soon as Saturday, although it is not yet complete," adding that "the exact terms [of the agreement] could not be learned."

Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada member Alexey Goncharenko (listed as terrorist and extremist in Russia) later said that the deal will be signed by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

On February 12, US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent handed over a draft agreement on rare-earth metals while visiting Kiev. Zelensky did not sign it then, nor later, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, during his meeting with US Vice President JD Vance. Instead, the Ukrainian delegation presented a revised version with its proposed amendments which the Americans decided not to take into account.

In recent days, tensions between the US and Ukraine have escalated sharply. Trump labeled Zelensky a dictator and accused him of obstructing a rare earths deal. In response, Zelensky suggested that Trump was a victim of "Russian disinformation.".