Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent held talks in Kyiv on February 12, 2025, on allowing US access to Ukraine’s rare earth mineral resources. © Tetiana Dzhafarova, AFP
FRANCE 24 | Published February 26, 2025
An agreement that would give the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals could be signed as early as Friday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky set to travel to Washington to meet President Donald Trump, according to one Ukrainian official on Tuesday.
Ukraine and the US have reached an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, three senior Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
The officials, who were familiar with the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly. One of them said that Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement will ensure the continued flow of US military support that Ukraine so urgently needs.
The agreement could be signed as early as Friday and plans are being drawn up for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to travel to Washington to meet President Donald Trump, according to one of the Ukrainian officials.
Another official said the agreement would provide an opportunity for Zelensky and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalise the deal.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he’d heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that “it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me”.
Trump called it a big deal that could be worth a trillion dollars. “It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things.”
According to one Ukrainian official, some technical details are still to be determined. However, the draft does not include a contentious Trump administration proposal to give the US $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv.
Instead, the US and Ukraine would have joint ownership of a fund, and Ukraine would in the future contribute 50% of future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil, and gas. One official said the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as “positive”.
The deal does not, however, include security guarantees. One official said that this would be something the two presidents would discuss when they meet.
The progress in negotiating the deal comes after Trump and Zelensky traded sharp rhetoric last week about their differences over the matter.
Zelensky said he balked at signing off on a deal that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with Vice President JD Vance because the American proposal did not include security guarantees.
Trump then called Volodymyr Zelensky “a dictator without elections” and claimed his support among voters was near rock-bottom.
But the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine last week by retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
The idea was initially proposed last fall by Zelensky as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in future negotiations with Moscow.
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SOURCE: www.france24.com
RELATED: Ukraine and US agree on minerals deal, Ukrainian officials say
EURONEWS | Published February 26, 2025
According to anonymous officials, Kyiv and Washington reached a broad economic deal which includes the exploitation of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. US President Donald Trump has said Zelenskyy could visit the US to sign a deal on Friday.
Ukraine and the United States reached an economic deal that would include the exploitations of Ukraine’s minerals, according to three senior Ukrainian officials.
One of the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Kyiv hopes the deal would improve its relations with Washington, and would ensure long-term support from the US that Ukraine urgently needs.
Responding to reporters’ questions about the Ukrainian leaders’ potential visit, Trump said “I hear that. I hear that he is coming on Friday. Certainly it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me.”
Last week, Trump labelled the Ukrainian leader a “dictator,” and warned Zelenskyy that he should reach a peace deal sooner than later, or “he is not going to have a country left.”
The US had previously presented a deal that would allow the US access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals in return for support from Washington, but Zelenskyy had turned down the deal as it did not offer enough security guarantees.
“It is important that we will discuss formats of the security guarantees for Ukraine, first of all from Europe and, undoubtedly, we need the United States,” Zelenskyy said at a forum of government officials in Kyiv on Sunday.
Although the new deal also reportedly lacks explicit security guarantees, Ukrainian officials claimed it offers more favourable terms than prior. One of the officials claimed that the two leaders will discuss security guarantees when they meet.
Speaking to the Financial Times on Tuesday, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said “the minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it’s part of a bigger picture.”
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