Ukraine’s prime minister on Wednesday revealed details of a draft minerals deal with the U.S., stating its language signaled Washington’s support for Kyiv’s push for security guarantees, though without any concrete commitments yet.
The deal is at the heart of Kyiv’s push to win over Donald Trump’s robust support as the U.S. president strives to reach a rapid end to the war with Russia that Ukraine’s supporters fear could come at the expense of its national interests.
Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said the government would authorize the draft agreement later Wednesday so it could be signed, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expected to visit Washington on Friday to meet Trump.
He said: “After the Ukrainian president and the U.S. president agree on security guarantees, agree on how we tie this preliminary agreement to security guarantees from the United States for our country, in the presence of (both) presidents, a representative of the Ukrainian government will sign this preliminary agreement.”
The prime minister, outlining the draft in televised comments, said Kyiv would contribute 50% of “all proceeds received from the future monetization of all relevant state-owned natural resource assets and relevant infrastructure.”
Those proceeds would go into a fund under the joint control of the United States and Ukraine, he said.
“Already existing deposits, facilities, licenses and rents are not subject to discussion when creating this fund,” he added.
Earlier Ukrainian officials said that Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement will ensure the continued flow of U.S. military support that Ukraine urgently needs.
Another official said the agreement would allow Zelenskyy and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalize the deal.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he’d heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that “it’s okay with me if he’d like to and he would like to sign it together with me.”
‘Positive’
Trump called it a big deal that could be worth a trillion dollars. “It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things.”
According to one Ukrainian official, some technical details are still to be determined. However, the draft does not include a contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv.
Instead, the U.S. and Ukraine would have joint ownership of a fund and Ukraine would in the future contribute 50% of future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil, and gas.
One official claimed that the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as “positive.”
The deal does not, however, include security guarantees. One official said that this would be something the two presidents would discuss when they meet.
The progress in negotiating the deal comes after Trump and Zelenskyy traded sharp rhetoric last week about their differences over the matter.
Zelenskyy said he balked at signing off on a deal that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month.
The Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.
Trump then called Volodymyr Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock bottom.
But the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine last week by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
The idea was initially proposed last fall by Zelenskyy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in future negotiations with Moscow.
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