Zelensky visits Washington as the draft of the rare metal’s agreement is ready for signing
The United States and Ukraine have reached a preliminary agreement on a metals deal that is a key part of Kyiv’s efforts to secure US support, informed sources said Wednesday morning, as US President Donald Trump seeks to end the war with Russia as quickly as possible.
A source familiar with the details of the draft revealed that the agreement doesn’t include security guarantees from the US side or assurances regarding the continued supply of weapons to Ukraine, but it confirms that the United States seeks for Ukraine to be a free, sovereign and secure state.
Another source added that negotiations between Washington and Kyiv over future arms shipments are still ongoing.
Trump told reporters that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to arrive in Washington on Friday to sign a very big deal, after a verbal confrontation between the two leaders over the past week.
Trump has described the deal as part of a financial settlement that includes billions of dollars in aid to Kyiv, and has suggested that peacekeeping troops should be deployed to Ukraine if a deal is reached to end the conflict.
Moscow on the other hand, has refused to deploy any NATO troops.
Some European countries have expressed their willingness to send peacekeeping forces to Ukraine.
Trump has said Russia might accept the offer, but the Kremlin strongly denied it in statements on Tuesday.
Trump’s rush to end the Russia-Ukraine war has raised concerns among some observers, who fear that it could lead to major concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin, which could threaten security in Ukraine and Europe and alter the geopolitical balance in the region.
Trump last week called Zelensky an “unpopular dictator,” warning him he would lose the country if a peace deal was not reached quickly, and Zelensky responded by saying Trump was living in a bubble of misinformation.
The sources said that officials from both sides had approved the draft and recommended signing it.
This deal could allow the United States to exploit Ukraine’s vast mineral resources.
Zelensky rejected an earlier draft of the deal, in which Washington sought rights to exploit Ukrainian natural resources estimated at $500 billion, while Kyiv stressed that the US aid it received was far less than that figure, and that the deal didn’t include the security guarantees it needed.
The current draft calls for the creation of a joint US-Ukrainian reconstruction fund, in which revenues from Ukrainian resources such as minerals, hydrocarbons, and others would be collected and reinvested.
The agreement stipulates that Ukraine will contribute 50% of the revenues from these resources, after deducting operating expenses, until the contribution reaches $500 billion.
United States also commits to long-term support for Ukraine’s economic development.
Asked what Ukraine would gain from the deal, Trump noted that the United States had already provided $350 billion and a lot of military equipment and the right to continue fighting.
Scott Anderson, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said the metals deal may seem like a “piracy attempt” to some, but it’s necessary to secure the support of Trump and Republican members of Congress, Reuters reported.
According to Ukrainian data, the country has reserves of 22 types of minerals classified by the European Union as critical minerals.
Ukraine is a major source of graphite, a key ingredient in electric car batteries and nuclear reactors, accounting for 20% of global supplies.
