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Ukraine will send a team to the US next week for talks on a new draft mineral deal

[April 07, 2025] By HANNA ARHIROVA

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine will send a team to Washington next week to begin negotiations on a new draft of a deal that would give the U.S. access to Ukraine’s valuable mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko told The Associated Press.

“The new draft agreement from the U.S. shows that the intention to create a fund or jointly invest remains,” Svyrydenko said Saturday, during a trip to northern Ukraine.

The delegation from Kyiv will include representatives from the Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance.

The long-running negotiations over a mineral deal have already strained relations between Kyiv and Washington. The two sides had been preparing in February to sign a framework agreement but the plan was derailed following a contentious meeting in the Oval Office between U.S. President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

After some Ukrainian lawmakers leaked the new draft, critics slammed it as little more than an attempt to strip Kyiv of control over its own natural resources and infrastructure. According to the leaked document, the new draft includes not only rare-earth minerals but gas and oil.

Ukraine holds significant deposits of more than 20 minerals deemed strategically critical by the U.S., including titanium, which is used to make aircraft wings, lithium, key to several battery technologies, and uranium, used in nuclear power.

New draft only gives the U.S. side of the deal

Despite the disruption following the Oval Office meeting, Ukrainian officials showed interest in signing the framework deal at any time, seeing it as an important step to win the favor of President Donald Trump and shore up U.S. backing in the war against Russia’s full-scale invasion.

After weeks of silence on the status of the deal, the U.S. sent a new draft to Kyiv, which goes further than the original framework.

It’s unclear why the U.S. chose to bypass the signing of the framework deal and instead moved forward with a more comprehensive draft agreement, which would likely require ratification by Ukraine’s parliament.

However, Ukrainian officials have been cautious about commenting on the contents of the draft, stressing that it currently reflects only one side’s position.

“What we have now is a document that reflects the position of the U.S. Treasury legal team,” said Svyrydenko. “This is not a final version, it’s not a joint position.”

She said that Ukraine’s task now is to assemble a technical team for negotiations, define its red lines and core principles, and send a delegation to Washington for technical talks as early as next week.

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A view of an ilmenite open pit mine in a canyon in the central region of Kirovohrad, Ukraine, Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky, File)

“It’s clear that the full parameters of this agreement can’t be discussed online,” Svyrydenko said. “We need to sit down with the teams and continue the conversation in person.”

Legal, investment, and financial advisers are being selected, she said.

“This marks a new stage in relations with the United States — one that requires expertise across multiple areas,” she said. “Ultimately, everything will be decided through the course of negotiations.”

Ukraine seeks terms acceptable to both sides

Svyrydenko declined to elaborate publicly on Ukraine’s official evaluation of the new draft, but noted that there is now a more detailed document outlining the fund’s creation. And while the initial draft focused primarily on the intention to establish the fund, Svyrydenko said the latest version lays out how American advisers envision its structure and operation.

It remains unclear what role Ukraine would play in managing the fund under the newly proposed U.S. draft. However, analysts who reviewed the leaked document said Kyiv’s involvement would likely be minimal — a point Ukraine hopes to challenge in upcoming negotiations, using the previously agreed framework as its reference.

A previous version of the framework agreement, obtained by The Associated Press, outlined plans for a jointly owned and managed investment fund between the United States and Ukraine, intended to support the reconstruction of Ukraine’s war-torn economy.

Under the terms, Ukraine would allocate 50% of future revenues generated from key national assets — including minerals, hydrocarbons, oil, natural gas, and other extractable resources — to the fund.

The framework agreement, which was never signed, stated that revenues from its natural resources would go into the fund and be used for the reconstruction of the country, not that ownership or control of those resources would be transferred to the United States.

“We’re very focused on ensuring that the final draft of the agreement, after negotiations, fully aligns with our strategic interests,” Svyrydenko said. “I believe the work on the previous memorandum showed that both teams are capable of reaching these goals and agreeing on terms acceptable to both sides.”

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