In exchange for creating an investment fund in Ukraine, the United States and Ukraine have inked an "economic partnership agreement" to grant Washington access to Kyiv's rare earth resources.
Since US President Donald Trump arrived to the White House in January, the US and Ukraine have been working to finalize the natural resources pact.
The agreement follows weeks of contentious negotiations that occasionally descended into hostility and even halted US assistance to Ukraine.
In an interview with NewsNation on Wednesday, Trump claimed that during their meeting over the weekend on the margins of Pope Francis' burial, he informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that "it's a very good thing" if he signed the agreement since "Russia is much bigger and much stronger."
Trump said that he struck the agreement in order to "protect" Washington's war effort commitment to Ukraine.
Trump told NewsNation, "We made a deal today where we get, you know, much more in theory than the $350 billion, but I wanted to be protected." "I didn't want to appear foolish out there."
Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the United States has really contributed more than $123 billion to the country.
Both nations signed the accord, the US Treasury Department said Wednesday. In a statement, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated, "The United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war, as the President has stated."
Bessent stated, "This agreement makes it abundantly evident to Russia that the Trump Administration is dedicated to a peace process that is focused on a long-term, free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine." "To be clear, the reconstruction of Ukraine will not benefit any state or individual that provided funding or supplies to the Russian war machine."
To sign on behalf of the Ukrainian government, Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's minister of economy, traveled to Washington.
"Full ownership and control" remaining with Ukraine is one of the stipulations of the agreement, she wrote on X on Wednesday.
"The Ukrainian state decides what and where to extract," she stated, adding that "all resources on our territory and in territorial waters belong to Ukraine." The Agreement makes it quite evident that Ukrainians still own the subsurface.
Hours after a last-minute dispute over which paperwork to sign on Wednesday threatened to blow the accord apart, the signing took place.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the president of Ukraine, was supposed to sign the agreement when he visited Washington in February, but the visit was canceled after the controversial encounter at the Oval Office, leaving the pact unsigned.
Prior points of contention
The issue of security assurances and whether the US would offer them as part of the agreement was one of the main points of contention during the discussions. At first, Trump rejected it, stating that he preferred Ukraine to sign the deal first and discuss guarantees later.
Zelensky said at the time that he was being asked to "sell" his nation in the draft deal. Since then, Ukrainian officials have expressed their belief that US investment and US corporations operating in Ukraine will increase US involvement in Ukraine's security.
Trump issued an order to halt US aid to Ukraine shortly after the disastrous White House visit. The incident served as a significant wake-up call for Ukraine's European friends, who have promised to increase their aid to the nation even though the aid has since been restored.
For the most part, Trump has portrayed the deal as Ukraine "paying back" the United States for aid given to Ukraine since Russia's full-scale, unprovoked invasion of the nation in February 2022.
Bessent said the agreement sends "a signal to the American people, that we have a chance to participate, get some of the funding and the weapons, compensation for those" in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday.
The agreement's specifics have not been disclosed to the public. Denys Shmyhal, the prime minister of Ukraine, stated on Sunday that the agreement "will not include assistance provided prior to its signing."
Shmyhal referred to the accord as "a strategic agreement on the establishment of an investment partnership fund" in a statement on Wednesday.
"It is a truly beneficial and equal international agreement between the Ukrainian and US governments on joint investments in Ukraine's development and recovery," he continued.
According to Shmyhal, the agreement calls for the US and Ukraine to establish a joint investment fund in Ukraine with equal contributions from both parties and a division of management shares equally.
"New—I stress new—military aid to Ukraine may also be counted by the American side as a contribution to this fund," Shmyhal stated.
Mineral wealth
The nation's natural wealth has long been coveted by Kyiv's allies. Of the 50 materials that the US Geological Survey has designated as critical, 22 are found in deposits in Ukraine.
These consist of resources such as rare earth minerals that are essential for the manufacturing of electronics, clean energy technologies, and certain missile systems.
China has long controlled the world's production of rare earth minerals and other strategically vital resources, leaving Western nations in dire need of alternative suppliers, including Ukraine.
According to a memorandum of understanding drafted during the Biden administration last year, Kyiv would create economic incentives and adopt ethical corporate and environmental practices in exchange for the US offering American corporations investment opportunities in Ukraine's mining enterprises.
In 2021, Ukraine and the European Union struck a similar deal.
Developments have been incorporated into this tale.
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