A minerals agreement negotiated in recent days would open Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth to the United States.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will meet with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday to sign a minerals deal as Kyiv seeks to regain American support in the Russia-Ukraine war.
It will be the first meeting between the two leaders since Trump re-took office in January.
Trump has changed Washington’s approach to the conflict since taking office last month, shifting from the previous administration’s stance of not engaging with the Kremlin to opening peace talks with Moscow.
Trump has said he wants to quickly wind down the war, improve relations with Russia, and recoup American money spent on supporting Ukraine.
Under the previous administration, Zelenskyy received billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. weaponry and vocal backing on the world stage.
Trump has also urged Europe to spend more of its own money on national defense rather than relying on U.S. support.
The minerals agreement negotiated in recent days would open Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth to the United States but does not include U.S. security guarantees.
It gives Washington the right to recoup some of the billions of dollars given to Kyiv through a reconstruction investment fund tied to the sale of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals.
At a press conference in Kyiv on Feb. 26, Zelenskyy said, “I wanted to have a sentence on security guarantees for Ukraine, and it’s important that it’s there.”
Ukraine needs to know where the United States stands on its continued military support, Zelenskyy said.
Under the agreement Trump and Zelenskyy are expected to sign, Ukraine would contribute 50 percent of “all revenues earned from the future monetization of all relevant Ukrainian Government-owned natural resource assets” to a reconstruction fund jointly owned and managed by the United States and Ukraine.
The agreement does not specify how the funds would be spent, or identify specific assets it covers, though it says they would include deposits of minerals, oil, and natural gas as well as infrastructure such as gas terminals and ports.
A more detailed agreement on the setting up of the fund will be drawn up once the preliminary one has been inked.
By Guy Birchall
