Ukraine has agreed to a US-proposed deal for the rights to its mineral wealth after Donald Trump backed down on his most extreme demands.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president, is set to sign the deal in Washington DC as early as this Friday, bringing to an end a heated dispute with the US president over the terms of the pact.
The draft deal does not commit to Ukraine using the profits from its natural resources to repay the United States up to $500bn (£400bn), a key demand of Mr Trump, who has complained that the US “got nothing back” from its support of the Ukrainian war effort.
Instead, Kyiv will contribute 50 per cent of the funds raised by future developments of minerals and energy reserves, according to a draft of the agreement seen by the Financial Times.
The US will not gain the rights to any of Ukraine’s existing oil or gas production.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mr Trump did not confirm that an agreement had been finalised but said Kyiv got $350 billion for the deal, the sum the president claims the US has already given to Kyiv, and “the right to fight on”.
“They’re very brave,” he said, but “without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time.”
He said that US supplies of weapons to Ukraine would continue “until we have a deal with Russia”.
Mr Trump also denied speaking to Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, about accessing minerals on Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine.
The US was open to striking a minerals deal with Russia, he added.
“I’d like to buy minerals on Russian land too if we can,” Mr Trump said.
“The rare earth, they have very good rare earth. They have very valuable land that isn’t utilised, so something like that could take place.”
The US-Ukraine agreement follows a war of words started by Mr Trump who last week called Mr Zelensky a “dictator” who needed to cut a quick peace deal or lose his country.
Mr Zelensky had refused to sign up to a deal that he said was unfair on his nation, incurring repayments “for the next 10 generations”.
He had also held out for firm security guarantees from the US against future Russian aggression.
The deal does not contain any specific US security guarantees, but Ukrainian officials have described it as a way to weave America into a stake in the country’s stability and future survival.
The minerals deal is set to be signed by Andriy Sybiga, the Ukrainian foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, news site Ukrainska Pravda reported.
In other details, the two countries will create a “Reconstruction Investment Fund”, which it says will be “calculated according to the countries’ actual contributions to it”.
The US also “intends to make a financial commitment to Ukraine” which will be determined separately, the site reported.
Reuters news agency said Ukraine’s cabinet was expected on Wednesday to recommend that the deal be signed.
A senior Ukrainian official, cited by AFP news agency, said the deal could be signed in Washington by Mr Zelensky on Friday when he is expected to travel there, according to reports.
Mr Trump said Mr Zelensky was welcome to the White House.
“I hear that he’s coming on Friday, certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to,” he said.
Mr Trump added: “I spoke with President Putin, I think he wants to settle it and wants to get back to life.”
Critics of Washington’s proposals had accused Mr Trump of trying to extort Ukraine and strongarm the wartorn nation into signing the deal.
News that it had been agreed came amid reports the European Union is pushing for its own deal to share Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
Stephane Sejourne, the bloc’s industry commissioner, quietly pushed Europe’s alternative deal on a visit to Kyiv to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion.
“Twenty-one of the 30 critical materials Europe needs can be provided by Ukraine in a win-win partnership,” the French eurocrat said after a meeting with Ukrainian officials.
“The added value Europe offers is that we will never demand a deal that’s not mutually beneficial.”
Mr Sejourne’s comments are likely to be interpreted by Washington as an attempt to muscle in on the US president’s proposed deal.
Any attempts by Brussels to hijack the deal will likely further exacerbate transatlantic tensions over Mr Trump’s efforts to broker a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
On Tuesday, the European Commission sought to play down the comments made by Mr Sejourne, claiming there had been “no proposal” tabled at his meetings in Kyiv.
A spokesman said he was referring to a Memorandum of Understanding between Brussels and Kyiv on critical materials signed in 2021.
“This is about cooperation with Ukraine, not competition with the US,” the spokesman added.
Critics of Washington’s proposals have accused Mr Trump of trying to extort Ukraine and strongarm the wartorn nation into signing the deal.
The proposed US-Ukraine minerals deal is likely to offer one of the clearest insights in how the country could be carved up as part of any peace settlement.
Many of Ukraine’s mineral deposits are in territory currently occupied by Russian forces.
On Monday, Mr Putin said he would be open to granting the US access to rare earths in both Russia and occupied Ukraine.
The Russian president said his country “undoubtedly have, I want to emphasise, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine”.
“As for the new territories, it’s the same. We are ready to attract foreign partners to the so-called new, to our historical territories, which have returned to the Russian Federation,” he added.
Mr Trump is likely to be buoyed by his Russian counterpart’s comments because of fears China could have demanded access to Russia’s rare earths as a price for its wartime support.
Moscow and Beijing have become increasingly close allies and have cemented that by signing a “no limits” alliance pact.
In his first stint in the White House, Mr Trump sought to restrict China’s access to advanced technology such as semiconductors and electric vehicles.
Many rare earths and minerals beneath Ukraine and Russia provide core materials for the production of these technologies.
Source: telegraph.co.uk
