National Harbor, Maryland - President Donald Trump said Saturday he wanted to get money back for the billions of dollars sent to support Ukraine's war against Russia after Moscow's 2022 invasion, as Washington and Kyiv negotiate a mineral resources deal.

"I'm dealing with President Zelensky. I'm dealing with President Putin. I'm trying to get the money back or secured," Trump said.

"Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back. We gave it in the form of nothing. So I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up.

"I'm going to try and get all that death ended," he told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a yearly gathering of Republicans outside Washington.

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"We're asking for rare earth and oil – anything we can get.

"We're going to get our money back because it's just not fair. And we will see, but I think we're pretty close to a deal, and we better be close because that has been a horrible situation."

Earlier Saturday, a Ukrainian source told AFP that Zelensky is "not ready" to sign a deal that would give the US preferential access to his country's rare earth minerals.