Ukraine confirms signing outline of minerals agreement with US
According to Ukraine’s economy minister Yulia Syvrydenko, the agreement’s text will be finalized next week following additional discussions in Washington.
Ukraine’s economy minister has confirmed the signing of a memorandum of intent with the United States, leading the way to finalize a rare earth mineral agreement next week.
She also mentioned, “This document is the product of the diligent work of the negotiation teams, which recently concluded another round of technical discussions in Washington.”
“Up next is finalizing the agreement’s text, signing it, and then getting it ratified by the parliaments,” Syvrydenko added.
The memorandum of intent specifies that Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal will head to Washington at the beginning of next week to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and seal the deal.
Ukraine holds significant deposits of rare earths such as graphite, lithium, titanium, and uranium, all crucial in electronics production.
Although the specifics of the agreement have not been disclosed, it remains unclear if it includes the security guarantees demanded by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to prevent future Russian aggression.
Shortly after the memorandum of intent was signed, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated on Friday that the United States was prepared to “move on” from attempting to negotiate a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine if no progress is made in the coming days.
Trump has been advocating for various versions of the minerals deal as a means to recover the funds the United States has spent on aiding Ukraine’s defense since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Since then, the United States has provided around $120 billion in direct assistance to Ukraine, mostly in the form of weapons transferred directly from the United States to Ukrainian stockpiles.
Zelenskyy has been hesitant to relinquish any wealth Ukraine possesses without assurances of some form of security after over a decade of conflict against Russia and Russian-backed separatists.
Previously, Trump suggested that Ukraine would grant the United States access to $500 billion worth of its rare earths and critical mineral deposits.
The most recent version of the deal that was made public does not aim to recoup previous U.S. assistance; instead, it establishes a joint U.S.-Ukrainian reconstruction fund that will channel profits to the United States from Ukrainian mineral development.
Trump’s efforts to secure a temporary cease-fire between Kyiv and Moscow remain in a state of uncertainty.
An aerial view shows a dragline excavator operating in an open-pit titanium mine in the Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, on Feb. 28, 2025. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
An initial partial cease-fire agreement, agreed upon by leadership from both Ukraine and Russia last month, aimed to stop attacks on civilian energy infrastructure for 30 days.
However, the deal was quickly violated, with each country accusing the other of breaking the truce by disrupting an oil facility in a part of Russia under Ukrainian troops’ occupation.
Putin has asserted that ending the war would require Ukraine to cede four eastern provinces to Russia, abandon its aspiration for NATO membership, and refrain from hosting foreign troops on its soil for any reason.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
