Kyiv/Washington: Ukraine and the US said Wednesday that they were ready to sign a mineral agreement violation after months of sometimes fixed negotiations, but an eleventh hour snag injected uncertainty during the timing.
“Our page is ready to sign. The Ukrainians decided last night to make some changes at the last minute,” US Finance Minister Scott Bessent told journalists in the White House.
“We are sure they will consider it and we are ready if they are.”
A Ukrainian official was on his way to Washington for signing. However, a source said the United States pushed Ukraine to sign two additional documents, and Kyiv felt it was too early.
Bessent denied that the United States had tried to change the agreed deal this weekend.
The agreement that would give the United States access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits is central to Kyiv’s efforts to repair ties with US President Donald Trump and the White House when Trump presses for a peace statement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Two sources told Reuters that the signing could still happen later on Wednesday. Ukraine’s first Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko flew to the United States to sign the deal, the country’s prime minister said earlier.
A draft of the Main Minerals Agreement seen by Reuters showed that Ukraine had secured the removal of any requirement to repay the United States for previous military assistance – a clause that Ukraine had shocked.
Washington has been Ukraine’s largest military donor since Russia’s invasion from 2022 with a total of more than EUR 64 billion ($ 72 billion), according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.
Trump repeated on Wednesday that the United States should receive something in return for its past help with Kiev – the efforts to secure access to Ukraine’s rich deposits of rare earth minerals.
“I assume they will honor the deal. … We haven’t really seen the fruits of this deal yet. I suppose we will,” Trump said after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
Ukrainian officials hope that the signing of the agreement promoted by Trump will strengthen US support for Kiev in the more than three -year -old war.
The draft agreement gives the United States’ preferred access to new Ukrainian natural resources, but does not automatically give Washington a proportion of Ukraine’s mineral wealth or its gas infrastructure.
“It’s actually a strategic agreement … It’s a really straightforward, good international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal.
The draft did not include any specific US security guarantees for Ukraine – one of Kyiv’s original goals. Separately, Ukraine has discussed with European allies creation of an international force to ensure that Ukraine’s security should be reached a peace agreement with Russia.
Common Fund
The minerals draft sets the creation of a joint US Ukrainian Reconstruction Fund, which will receive 50% of the profits and royalties that accrue the Ukrainian state from new natural resources.
The draft does not clarify how the fund’s revenue will be used, who benefits, or who has control over expenditure decisions.
Shmyhal said on TV that when the main agreement was signed, both parties would agree on two additional technical and supplementary documents covering details such as fund accumulation.
He said Ukraine would maintain full control over its resources during the agreement, while the fund would invest in Ukraine’s development for 10 years.
“Ukraine will only contribute from new licenses from new royalties on mineral resources. This will be our contribution, of which 50% will be awarded to this fund,” he said.
The United States could use future military assistance to Ukraine as a contribution to the fund, Shmyhal added without any previous assistance.
The two sides signed a Memorandum on April 18 as an initial step towards concluding an agreement on the development of mineral resources. In the memo, both parties aimed to conduct the negotiations before April 26 and sign the agreement as soon as possible.
Trump and members of his administration have threatened this month to abandon the peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine, unless there is soon clear progress.
