Russia's Putin could be NATO's 'Man of the Year' as he's strengthened the alliance, Trump ally says

Russian President Vladimir Putin has done more to strengthen and unite NATO than member states have done, U.S. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

"If I were nominating somebody to be the NATO Man of the Year, it'd be Putin," Graham said as he participated in a MSC panel that included NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen.

"He's done more to help NATO than we have. We have two new members [Sweden and Finland]. We're talking about spending more, not less. So he's made a serious miscalculation," Graham said.

Graham, a long-standing ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, said that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine should include the proviso that, should Russia invade Ukraine again in future, Ukraine would be granted automatic and immediate membership of the NATO military alliance.

"I do believe that if he understood 'you do this again, your worst nightmare of Ukraine being in NATO is a certainty' [then that] would be a deterrent," Graham, chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget, said.

Graham's comments come as debate rages over the substance of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, which Trump announced last week, and what a deal could entail. European NATO members were left stunned by the president's announcement and have voiced concerns over seemingly being left out of the negotiations by Washington.

Separately, NATO chief Mark Rutte commented on Saturday that European members of the military alliance had to stop complaining about being sidelined when it comes to peace talks and discussions on Ukraine's future.

"Get into the debate, not by complaining …. but by coming up with concrete ideas," he told the MSC.

The NATO chief also confirmed that the alliance would reach a new agreement for defense spending targets when members meet in June for a summit in the Hague, Netherlands.

The Trump administration has suggested to Ukraine that the U.S. be granted 50% ownership of the country's rare earth minerals, and signaled an openness to deploying American troops there to guard them if there's a deal with Russia to end the war, according to an NBC News report citing anonymous U.S. officials.

Rather than pay for the minerals, the ownership agreement would be a way for Ukraine to compensate Washington for the billions of dollars in military aid that it has provided to Kyiv over the course of the war, two of the officials said, NBC News reported on Saturday.

Sen. Graham backed the potential minerals deal, calling it a potential "game-changer" for Ukraine and a "nightmare" for Putin as he addressed delegates at the MSC.

"This minerals agreement between the United States and Ukraine is a game changer, because President Trump can go to the American people [and] say 'Ukraine is not a burden, it's a benefit.' They're sitting on top of trillion dollars worth of minerals that all of us can benefit from by lining with the West," he said.

"I told President Trump, it may be the old Soviet Union, it may be the Russian Empire, but I do know he's going after the money. Don't let him steal what Ukraine has to enrich himself, because that's like defunding the police. So if this minerals agreement happens it's a nightmare for Putin, because we have something to defend that we didn't have before," he added.

Graham urged European allies to support such a deal, saying: "So you better be pulling for this minerals agreement."

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has signalled his willingness to enter an agreement when it comes to Ukraine's rare earths deposits, stating last week that he was ready to "do a deal" with the U.S. over minerals in return for aid.