Staff Writer | March 21, 2025 |
Zaporizhzhia power plant. Credit: Wikipedia under licence CC BY-SA 3.0
The Trump administration is looking to renegotiate its proposed minerals deal with Ukraine which, if agreed, would grant the US expanded access to the Eastern European resources, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
The FT has learned, citing Ukrainian officials, that Washington wants to broaden the terms of the deal to include other assets, most notably a nuclear power plant that is currently under Russian control. It is also looking to add more specific provisions on American ownership of a joint investment fund.
These changes would, the sources said, essentially require a renegotiation of the unsigned minerals that fell apart last month.
The FT report comes a day after US President Donald Trump said that a minerals deal will be signed “shortly” following his talks this week with the Russian and Ukrainian leaders. The pledge was made following his signing of an executive order to increase US production of critical minerals. In addition to Ukraine, Trump said that his government is also looking at rare earths and minerals in other countries.
With the potential revision of terms, Ukrainian officials told FT they are concerned about Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s government “being pressured into unfavourable terms”, especially after Washington paused arms deliveries and intelligence sharing with Kyiv earlier this month.
During a phone call this week, Trump and Zelenskyy reportedly discussed Ukraine’s energy supply and nuclear plants, the FT said, citing both the secretary of state Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz.
Zelenskyy told reporters during an online briefing on Wednesday that they discussed just one nuclear facility: the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest.
Located 650 km southeast of Kyiv on the Dnipro River, the facility has been under Russian military control since March 2022.
Trump says he’ll soon sign Ukraine natural resources deal
Bloomberg News | March 20, 2025 |
Ukrainian flag in Lviv. Stock image.
President Donald Trump said he would soon sign a natural-resources deal with Ukraine that would give the US partial control over revenue from future resource extraction.
“One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine,” Trump said Thursday during an education event at the White House.
The agreement fell apart late last month after a tense Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Under that deal, Ukraine would contribute half of all revenues from future sales of natural resources, including minerals, oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons as well as infrastructure to a reconstruction fund jointly owned with the US.
Trump’s comments come one day after his top spokeswoman said the administration was moving beyond the previously negotiated minerals deal with Kyiv to focus more broadly on a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are now focused on a long-term peace agreement,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “We’ve moved beyond just the economic minerals deal framework.”
Trump’s focus on Ukraine’s commodities has raised questions about what the nation really has to offer. It has no major rare-earth reserves that are internationally recognized as economically viable. Ukraine is an established producer of coal, iron ore, uranium, titanium, and magnesium, and expanding those sectors could be profitable for the US.
The president spoke about the Ukraine agreement shortly after he invoked emergency powers to boost the US’s ability to produce critical minerals, and possibly coal, as part of a broad effort to ramp up domestic production and lower reliance on imports.
“I also signed an executive order to dramatically increase production of critical minerals and rare earths. It’s a big thing in this country, and as you know, we’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular Ukraine,” Trump said.
(By Akayla Gardner)
Bloomberg News | March 20, 2025 |
Ukrainian flag in Lviv. Stock image.
President Donald Trump said he would soon sign a natural-resources deal with Ukraine that would give the US partial control over revenue from future resource extraction.
“One of the things we are doing is signing a deal very shortly with respect to rare earths with Ukraine,” Trump said Thursday during an education event at the White House.
The agreement fell apart late last month after a tense Oval Office meeting between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Under that deal, Ukraine would contribute half of all revenues from future sales of natural resources, including minerals, oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons as well as infrastructure to a reconstruction fund jointly owned with the US.
Trump’s comments come one day after his top spokeswoman said the administration was moving beyond the previously negotiated minerals deal with Kyiv to focus more broadly on a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.
“We are now focused on a long-term peace agreement,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday. “We’ve moved beyond just the economic minerals deal framework.”
Trump’s focus on Ukraine’s commodities has raised questions about what the nation really has to offer. It has no major rare-earth reserves that are internationally recognized as economically viable. Ukraine is an established producer of coal, iron ore, uranium, titanium, and magnesium, and expanding those sectors could be profitable for the US.
The president spoke about the Ukraine agreement shortly after he invoked emergency powers to boost the US’s ability to produce critical minerals, and possibly coal, as part of a broad effort to ramp up domestic production and lower reliance on imports.
“I also signed an executive order to dramatically increase production of critical minerals and rare earths. It’s a big thing in this country, and as you know, we’re also signing agreements in various locations to unlock rare earths and minerals and lots of other things all over the world, but in particular Ukraine,” Trump said.
(By Akayla Gardner)
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