Reuters | March 28, 2025 |
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Credit: Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s official X account
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine would not accept any mineral rights deal that threatened its integration with the EU but said it was too early to pass judgment on a dramatically expanded minerals deal proposed by Washington.
The Ukrainian leader told reporters that Kyiv’s lawyers needed to review the draft before he could say more about the US offer, a summary of which suggested the US was demanding all Ukraine’s natural resources income for years.
He also said Kyiv would not recognize billions of dollars of past US aid as loans, though he did not say whether such a demand featured in the latest draft version received by a top government official.
Zelenskiy said the text was “entirely different” from an earlier framework agreement that he had been set to sign with Donald Trump before their talks descended into acrimony last month.
“I don’t want to set off a wave (of comments), I really want us to get a specific review by lawyers at the highest level,” Zelenskiy told the news conference in Kyiv.
The latest US proposal would require Kyiv to send Washington all profit from a fund controlling Ukrainian resources until Ukraine had repaid all American wartime aid, plus interest, according to the summary, reviewed by Reuters.
Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told lawmakers that Kyiv would issue its position on the new draft only once there was consensus. Until then, public discussion would be harmful, she said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior official in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office, told Reuters there was no finalized draft for now: “Consultations are still happening at the level of the various ministries,” he said, declining to elaborate further.
Another Ukrainian source described the full document presented by the Americans as “huge”.
Revised draft
The Trump administration, which has reoriented Washington’s policy towards endorsing Russia’s narrative about the three-year-old war in Ukraine, has been pressing Kyiv for weeks to sign a deal giving Washington a stake in Ukraine’s resources.
Zelenskiy has repeatedly said he accepts the idea, although he would not sign an agreement that would impoverish his country. On Thursday he said Washington was constantly changing the terms but that he did not want the US to think he was opposed in principle.
Three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations said Washington had revised its proposals. The latest draft gives Ukraine no future security guarantees and requires it to contribute to a joint investment fund all income from the use of natural resources managed by state and private enterprises.
According to the summary, it stipulates that Washington is given first rights to purchase extracted resources and recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, plus interest at a 4% annual rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the fund’s profits.
Ukraine’s 2024 budget revenues included, among other things, $1.2 billion of rent payments for the use of subsurface resources, $1.8 billion in dividends and other payments from the state share in state-owned companies, and $19.4 billion from profits at state-owned companies, finance ministry data showed.
The joint investment fund would be managed by the US International Development Finance Corporation and have a board of five people, three appointed by the US and two by Ukraine. Funds would be converted into foreign currency and transferred abroad.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk, Gram Slattery, Erin Bano and Andrea Shalal, Writing by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Jon Boyle)
US pushing more expansive minerals deal with Ukraine
Reuters | March 28, 2025 |
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in meeting with delegation from the US Senate. Credit: Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s official X account
The Trump administration has proposed a new, more expansive minerals deal with Ukraine, according to three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations and a summary of a draft proposal obtained by Reuters.
The US has revised its original proposal, said the sources, and it gives Ukraine no future security guarantees but requires it to contribute to a joint investment fund all income from the use of natural resources managed by state and private enterprises across Ukrainian territory.
The terms put forward by Washington go well beyond the deal discussed in the days leading up to the contentious Oval Office meeting last month between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been leading negotiations for the United States, said one of the sources.
Bessent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The proposal makes no mention of the US taking ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to the summary – something Trump had talked about.
Trump has said a minerals deal will help secure a peace agreement by giving the United States a financial stake in Ukraine’s future. He also sees it as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago.
National Security Council spokesperson James Hewitt declined to confirm the terms of the latest proposal, but said the deal would strengthen the relationship between the US and Ukraine.
“The mineral deal offers Ukraine the opportunity to form an enduring economic relationship with the United States that is the basis for long term security and peace,” said Hewitt.
Ukraine’s ministry of foreign affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
An earlier version of the deal proposed a joint investment fund where Ukraine would contribute 50% of proceeds from the future profits of the extraction of the state-owned natural resources. It also set out terms that the US and Ukraine would jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources.
Zelenskiy told reporters on Tuesday that the US had proposed a “major” new deal and that Ukrainian officials were still reviewing its terms.
Zelenskiy said on Thursday the US is “constantly” changing the terms of the proposed minerals deal, but added that he did not want Washington to think Kyiv was against the deal.
In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Bessent said the US had “passed along a completed document for the economic partnership” and that Washington hopes to “go to full discussions and perhaps even get signatures next week.”
The new proposal stipulates that the US is given first rights to purchase resources extracted under the agreement and that it recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, in addition to a 4% annual interest rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the fund’s profits, according to the summary. The updated proposal was first reported by the Financial Times.
If agreed, the joint investment fund would have a board of five people, three appointed by the US and two by Ukraine, and the funds generated would be converted into foreign currency and transferred abroad, according to the summary. The fund would be managed by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).
A separate source with knowledge of the negotiations said there had been discussions about having the DFC administer the fund.
(By Erin Banco, Andrea Shalal, Gram Slattery and Tom Balmforth; Editing by Don Durfee and Daniel Wallis)
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