Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy initially rejected demands for half of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, seeking security guarantees instead.
Ukraine and the United States have agreed to a framework for an expansive minerals deal, according to a Ukrainian official and another person familiar with the matter, potentially easing weeks of bitterness from US President Donald Trump directed towards Kyiv.
The broad outlines of the deal would grantWashington partial access to Ukraine’s minerals, oil and gas, part of an effort by the Trump Administration to recoup the cost of US war aid and, advocates of a deal say, offer a form of security to Ukraine by deepening US investments there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump at a meeting last year in New York City. Photo / Getty Images
The idea originated in a plan floated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year, in which his country’s untapped mineral wealth would be used to help fund its war effort.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent took a plan to Kyiv this month that shocked Ukrainian officials because it demanded unchecked access to their country’s resources but offered little in return. One person compared it to a 19th-century imperial demand for resource extraction from a colony.
Trump: ‘Very big deal’
After days of negotiations, the Ukrainian Government appears ready to agree to a deal. Kyiv’s openness to an agreement comes after intense pressure from Trump, who called the democratically elected Zelenskyy a “dictator”, and blamed Ukraine for starting the war even though Russia invaded it unprovoked.
The US also flipped sides at the United Nations to join Russia and North Korea against Ukraine, and pushed hard for a peace deal that demands few concessions from Russian President Vladimir Putin other than that he stop active hostilities towards Kyiv.
Both the Ukrainian official and the other person familiar with the matter spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations.
“I hear that [Zelenskyy]’s coming on Friday, certainly it’s okay with me if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal,” Trump said in the Oval Office today NZT after being asked about a mineral deal, without confirming the specifics of the agreement.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about a possible trip. Photo / Getty Images
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment about a possible trip.
“It could be a trillion-dollar deal. It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things,” Trump said. “We want to get that money back. We’re helping the country through a very, very big problem, a problem like very few people have had.
“Shouldn’t have had this problem, because it shouldn’t have happened, but it did happen, so we have to straighten it out, but the American taxpayer now is going to get their money back, plus.”
Neither the White House nor the State Department responded to a request for comment about the specifics of the deal. Trump’s Ukraine envoy, retired general Keith Kellogg, was in Ukraine for most of last week to talk about the peace effort and the mineral deal.
Representatives from the Treasury Department have also been involved in negotiating the deal following Bessent’s visit.
Trump has sought a rapid end to the war in Ukraine, initiating talks with Putin and appearing to accept the Kremlin’s narrative that Ukraine’s desire to join Nato was an unacceptable security risk for the Kremlin.
Ukrainian desires to join Nato became favourable only after Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, according to Ukrainian public opinion polling.
Trump has demanded that Ukraine repay US war aid with access to its natural resources, highlighting a new, more transactional approach to how the US handles issues around the world.
From now on: “When Americans put up their money, the taxpayer money, and [the] president approves it, we’re getting our money back in some form,” Trump said.
Trump has claimed that the US has sent assistance totalling US$350 billion to Ukraine, and earlier versions of the deal requested that Kyiv pay Washington up to US$500b.
As of January, Washington had sent US$66b ($115b) in military aid since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the State Department, and an additional US$54b in non-military aid, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, totalling about US$120b. Europe has sent about US$139b in that period, according to the institute.
Zelenskyy rejected Trump’s initial request
Zelenskyy rejected the Trump Administration’s initial request for half of Ukraine’s mineral wealth, telling reporters that clear security guarantees were not part of the proposal – something he said was necessary for him to enter any agreement.
Ukrainian officials began working on a separate counter-proposal that would offer the US more access to Ukraine’s natural resources, but that would have reportedly offered US security guarantees for Kyiv, several people familiar with discussions said at the time.
The framework for the deal would grant Washington access to Ukrainian mineral wealth on “much better terms” than those offered in an earlier proposal that Zelenskyy was not swift to accept, the Ukrainian official said.
It does not include any mention of US$500b – the figure that Trump told Fox News he wanted, in equivalent rare earth minerals, to repay US war aid to Ukraine.
“I’m not signing something that will have to be repaid by generations and generations of Ukrainians,” Zelenskyy said on Monday.
