Update(1045ET): Another minerals deal headline that wasn’t… not for the first time, a Ukrainian delegation’s plane may have been literally rerouted mid-air amid Wednesday reports that the Trump-backed deal was to be signed in Washington within ‘hours’. Financial Times reports:
Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, has flown to Washington to sign the deal with US treasury secretary Scott Bessent, said three Ukrainian officials. But problems arose as Svyrydenko’s plane headed to Washington, and Bessent’s team told her she should “be ready to sign all agreements, or go back home”, said three people familiar with the matter.
Apparently the Zelensky government was not ready to sign onto all that the Trump administration required. This even after the US reportedly dropped conditions related to Ukraine paying back debt for prior US military or financial assistance
“The US and Ukraine ran into last-minute hurdles on Wednesday as they were on the verge of signing a framework minerals deal, when a dispute over what had been agreed in marathon overnight negotiations cast doubt on the deal being finalized,” FT writes.
“The Americans want the Ukrainians to sign both the framework deal and a detailed fund agreement that would complete the full minerals deal on Wednesday, said two Ukrainian officials.”
This seems to be the same story on repeat for months: “One person familiar with the US’s thinking said on Wednesday that negotiations had not concluded because Ukraine had sought to revisit terms agreed at the weekend,” FT continues.
President Trump’s reaction is going to be interesting, given he’s already repeatedly blasted Zelensky for being ‘late’ on signing the deal. Washington could be ready at this point to cut him and the Ukrainian cause lose, after previously briefly halting arms transfers and intelligence-sharing.
Original article below:
After several false starts and timeline projections which didn’t pan out, Ukraine is imminently ready to sign the mineral resources deal with the US, Bloomberg has quoted a source close to negotiations as saying.
“The draft agreement, which envisages creating a joint fund to manage Ukraine’s investment projects, has been finalized and may be signed as soon as Wednesday, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the talks are private,” the report says, noting that Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is en route Washington for the signing.
A source in Ukrainian President Zelensky’s office has separately told the Kyiv Independent that it will be signed by Wednesday evening. A draft document says the deal seeks to create conditions to “increase investment in mining, energy, and related technology in Ukraine.”
Crucially, the agreement excludes any conditions which say it is related to Ukraine’s debt for prior US military or financial assistance. Kiev and many of its European allies had balked at that prior controversial proposal, which had centered on Trump’s insistence that Ukraine pay back the hundreds of billions provided by the American taxpayer after over three years of war.
Bloomberg details, “In another breakthrough, the US has agreed that only future military assistance it may provide to Ukraine following the signing of the deal would count toward its contribution to the fund, according to the document.”
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal first unveiled Sunday that the Trump administration had dropped this requirement of paying back past debt.
The document “strengthens the strategic partnership between the Parties for the long-term reconstruction and modernization of Ukraine, in response to the large-scale destruction caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion” – but many specifics regarding rare earth mineral access remain unclear as of yet.
Washington and Kiev have until now spent months dancing around a deal that would allow the US access to Ukraine’s mineral deposits, which was originally proposed by Zelensky as part of his five-point “Victory Plan” unveiled last October to secure US support.
Many of Kiev’s supporters called it insultingly lopsided, and tantamount to a resource grab by the US, with Ukrainian lawmakers at one point calling an earlier revision to the mineral agreement a “horror” that offered no security guarantees from Washington.
Trump was really ramping up the pressure personally on Zelensky just last week…
An initial version of the deal sought to grant the Untied States access to all existing and future mineral deposits across Ukraine, along with oil and gas throughout the country. It would still have to be ratified by Ukrainian parliament after it is signed, theoretically at least and according to Ukrainian law.
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