The land and minerals are charged in trucks in an open bond mine near the first line, despite the threat of bombing of the Russian invading forces on February 26, 2025 in the Donetsk region, Ukraine.
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The United States and Ukraine have signed a long -awaited mineral agreement, providing Washington for preferential access to kyiv’s natural resources in exchange for the formation of a reconstruction investment fund.
The long -awaited agreement, coveted by US President Donald Trump, occurs after months of tense negotiations and more than three years since the beginning of the large -scale invasion of Ukraine of Russia.
The Secretary of the United States of the Treasury, Scott Besent, said on Wednesday that the Economic Association would allow the two countries to invest together to accelerate the economic recovery of Ukraine and help “to facilitate the end of this cruel and meaningless war.”
“This agreement clearly indicates to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process focused on a free, sovereign and prosperous long -term Ukraine,” Besent said in a statement.
Since its inauguration in January, Trump has pressed for a mineral agreement with Ukraine, saying that an agreement to jointly develop and monetize kyiv deposits of rare earth, critical minerals, oil, gas and other natural resources would act, indeed, as compensation for US help to Ukraine throughout the war with Russia.
In this photo of a brochure published through the official social networks channels of the Office of the President of Ukraine, the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy (R) meets with the president of the United States, Donald Trump (L) during the funeral of Pope Francis in the Basilica of San Pedro in the Vatican, in the city of the Vatican, Vatican 2025.
Brochure | Getty Images News | Getty images
In the comments in a City Council on the Newsnation Network, Trump said the agreement represents the recovery of the money that the United States has spent so far on supporting the war effort of Ukraine.
Trump added that “I wanted to be protected. I didn’t want to be there and look silly.”
The president of the United States also confirmed that he had conversations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the mineral agreement when both attended the funeral of Pope Francis last week.
Ukraine to determine ‘where and what to extract’
Zelenskyy pointed out that the scheme of an agreement had already been agreed in mid -April.
Yulia Svyrydenko, Minister of Economic Development and Commerce of Ukraine, said Wednesday that the economic agreement is capable of offering success for the United States and Ukraine.
“It is important that the agreement becomes a signal for other global players that it is reliable to cooperate with long -term Ukraine, in the long term,” said Svyrydenko through the X Social Network Platform, according to a Google translation.
As part of the agreement, Svyrydenko said it is Ukraine “that determines where and what to extract.”
He added that the fund is being created 50-50, which reflects an equal association between Washington and kyiv. None of the matches will have a dominant vote, said Svyrydenko.
An uncertain future
Ed Verona, a non -resident member at the Eurasia Center of the Atlantic Council with a particular approach to the help of Ukrainian reconstruction, said Kyiv seemed to have “few more options than accepting the agreement that reduces the state of a virtual colony.”
Looking towards the future, several “discrete” questions mean that the future of the agreement is probably uncertain, said Verona.
These include whether the Minerals Agreement will have to be ratified by the Ukraine Legislature, if the amendments would be considered in such a vote and if investors would be willing to commit to future projects.
An employee works in a pink salt production site at Lake Sasyk-Sivash near Yevpatorio, on September 21, 2023.
Stringer | AFP | Getty images
“The history of mineral resources agreements offers a broad reason to doubt that it would resist well during the period that is generally required to develop large and intensive capital intensive with delivery times of up to a decade,” said Verona.
“Russia, ironically, provides an example of how resources -related agreements may be unraveled. Shared production agreements signed during the difficult transition period of the 1990s were subsequently repudiated by [President Vladimir] The Putin regime, with the western partners forced to deliver control and majority property in important projects, “he said.
“I suspect that few serious investors in the United States will put the money of their shareholders at risk based on a clearly unbalanced” agreement. “
– Holly Ellyatt of CNBC contributed to this report.
