Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is preparing to meet with Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference later this week after confirming on Friday he is ready to “do a deal” with President Donald Trump.

According to an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was ready to supply the U.S. with rare-earth minerals in exchange for Washington’s continued backing of its war effort.

“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskyy said. 

The ruins of the city of Toretsk are in the Donetsk region, eastern Ukraine, on Dec. 19, 2024. Russia, on Feb. 7, 2025, claimed to have finally seized the mining city. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

As Moscow continues to see incremental gains in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv is also pushing forward with its own attempts to seize Russian territory, which security experts have told Fox News Digital could be an attempt to give it better bargaining leverage come the time for ceasefire talks with Moscow.

Zelenskyy also said on Friday that Ukraine had opened a new offensive in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv first began its incursion in August 2024.

“In the areas of the Kursk operation, new assaults have taken place,” Zelenskyy said during his nightly address. “Russia has once again deployed North Korean soldiers alongside its troops.”

Ukrainian forces fight in the Kursk region in Malaya Loknya, Russia, in this screen grab obtained from a handout video released on Aug. 20, 2024. (Air Assault Brigade/Handout via Reuters)

It is unclear if North Korea has sent more troops to Russia after its initial deployment of as many as 12,000 men last October, though South Korean intelligence has warned Pyongyang is planning to do so.

Zelenskyy Sunday night said Ukrainian troops in Kursk “demonstrate highly effective enemy destruction,” though he did not detail any casualty rates among Russian or North Korean troops. 

“We must hold all our positions firmly,” he said. “The stronger we stand on the front lines, the stronger our diplomacy – our work with partners – will be.”