Ukraine on Wednesday said it is ready to sign a minerals deal with the United States after months of sometimes fraught negotiations.
According to Ukraine’s prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko was flying to the United States to sign the deal, which is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with Donald Trump and the White House as the US president tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
The fallout from US President Donald Trump’s trade war reportedly spread further through the corporate world this week.
According to Reuters, two sources said the signing could happen later on Wednesday.
However, one source said that the US was pushing Ukraine to sign two additional documents as well as the main minerals deal and that Kyiv felt they were not ready yet.
“Who knows — maybe today they will take (those) two docs and finish them too,” the source said.
According to the draft of the main minerals agreement, Ukraine had secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the US for past military assistance, something Ukraine had staunchly opposed.
Ukrainian officials expressed optimism that signing the deal promoted by Trump will help firm up softening American support for Kyiv in the more than three-year-old war.
The draft agreement gives the US preferential access to new Ukrainian natural resources deals but does not automatically hand Washington a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth or any of its gas infrastructure.
“Indeed, it is a strategic agreement… it is a truly equal, good international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
