KYIV – The United States and Ukraine finally reached an agreement regarding Ukraine’s minerals and other natural resources, the international media reported on Thursday.
Washington and Kyiv signed a deal concerning Ukraine’s natural resources after months of negotiations. Under this agreement, Ukraine will grant the U.S. preferential access to its rare minerals.
Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, confirmed on Wednesday that she signed the minerals agreement, claiming that Ukraine will retain the right to decide which minerals to extract and from where.
Experts believe that initiating rare mineral extraction would require an investment of around $2 billion. However, if these minerals are sourced from Ukraine, the US could reduce its import reliance on China and Russia for rare earth elements.
Ukraine possesses 6% of the world’s graphite and holds Europe’s largest reserves of lithium, titanium, and uranium. The country also has significant quantities of beryllium.
According to the US Treasury Department, the agreement will establish a joint U.S.-Ukraine Investment and Reconstruction Fund. This fund will be operated jointly by both nations and will be financed by 50% of the revenues generated from new licenses for rare minerals, oil, and gas. The US will contribute to this fund both through direct financial input and military assistance.
The agreement also grants the US a share in future profits from the sale of these rare minerals. This is expected to serve as a partial repayment of the $175 billion in aid the US has provided to Ukraine since the war began.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Besant stated that the agreement sends a message to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine.
Upon taking office, President Trump had stated that US military aid to Ukraine would be tied to gaining access to its rare minerals.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington in February was intended to finalize this deal. However, following a tense exchange with President Trump in the Oval Office, Zelensky had to cut his visit short and return to Ukraine.
President Zelensky initially rejected the demand to grant the US access to Ukraine’s minerals in exchange for $500 billion, arguing that the US hadn’t provided Ukraine with aid on such a scale and had not offered any security guarantees.
However, under growing pressure from the US, Zelensky later described the move as a step toward securing safety and security assurances.
Eventually, a meeting between the US and Ukrainian presidents during Pope Francis’ funeral proved decisive in finalizing the deal.
According to the media reports, the US insisted that no country or state that supported Russia during the war should be allowed to participate in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
The critics argued that the US has leveraged its military aid to Ukraine to secure access to its rare mineral resources.
