Ukraine and the US have reached an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine’s rare earths, three senior Ukrainian officials familiar with the matter said on Tuesday.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
One of them said that Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement would ensure the continued flow of US military support that Ukraine urgently needs.
Photo: AFP
The agreement could be signed as early as tomorrow and plans are being drawn up for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to travel to Washington to meet with US President Donald Trump, one of the officials said.
Another official said that the agreement would provide an opportunity for Zelenskiy and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalize the deal.
Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office at the White House, said he had heard that Zelenskiy was to travel to the US and added: “It’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me.”
Trump called it a big deal that could be worth US$1 trillion.
“It could be whatever, but it’s rare earths and other things,” he said.
One of the Ukrainian officials said that some technical details were still to be determined.
However, the draft did not include a proposal by Washington to give it US$500 billion of profits from Ukraine’s rare earths as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv.
Instead, the US and Ukraine would have joint ownership of a fund and Ukraine would contribute 50 percent of future proceeds from state-owned resources, including minerals, oil and gas.
One official said that the deal had better terms of investments and another one said that Kyiv secured favorable amendments and viewed the outcome as “positive.”
However, the deal does not include security guarantees.
One official said that this would be something the two presidents would discuss when they meet.
The progress in negotiating the deal comes after Trump and Zelenskiy traded sharp rhetoric last week about their differences over the matter.
Zelenskiy said he balked at signing a deal that US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent pushed during a visit to Kyiv earlier this month, and the Ukrainian leader objected again days later during a meeting in Munich with US Vice President J.D. Vance because the US proposal did not include security guarantees.
Trump then called Zelenskiy “a dictator without elections” and said that his support among voters was near rock-bottom.
However, the two sides made significant progress during a three-day visit to Ukraine last week by retired Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia.
The idea was initially proposed last fall by Zelenskiy as part of his plan to strengthen Kyiv’s hand in potential negotiations with Moscow.
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