Ukraine reportedly agrees a critical rare minerals deal with the U.S.

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Ukraine reportedly agrees a critical rare minerals deal with the U.S.

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., September 27, 2024. 

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

Ukraine and the United States reached an agreement over access to Kyiv’s deposits of rare earth minerals, according to media reports, as Kyiv seeks to reinforce its ties with its key wartime transatlantic ally under the Trump administration.

The draft deal envisages that the two countries will jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources, including oil and gas, and sees the U.S. drop demands for a right to $500 billion in potential revenue from the agreement,

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, which first reported the deal on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to confirm progress regarding the deal, which has yet to be inked.

“I hear that [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy]’s coming on Friday,” Trump

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on Tuesday. “Certainly it’s okay with me, if you’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal.”

Trump said the agreement offered Kyiv billions of dollars in aid and “lots of equipment and military equipment and the right to fight on, and originally, the right to fight.”

The text of the deal does not give Ukraine specific security guarantees, according to the Financial Times — a key issue for Kyiv, as it looks to a post-war future in which it’s protected from further Russian aggression.

CNBC has reached out to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to the U.S. State Department for comment. Neither CNBC nor NBC News have seen a copy of the “framework agreement.”

Bloomberg News and Sky News also reported that agreement terms were reached.

It’s unclear how much mineral wealth lies within Ukraine, although one Ukrainian official from the economy ministry reportedly said at the weekend that $350 billion worth of natural resources are located in Russian-occupied territories,

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Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna reportedly led negotiations between Washington and Kyiv on the mineral deal and told the Financial Times on Tuesday that “we have heard multiple times from the U.S administration that it’s part of a ******* picture.”

“Ukraine, I will say they’re very brave, and they’re good soldiers, but without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short time,” Trump added on Tuesday.

Security guarantees

Yuriy Sak, an advisor to Ukraine’s Ministry of Strategic Industries, told the BBC on Wednesday that the deal is not exactly what the U.S. or Ukraine wanted, but is “good enough for both for the negotiating process to move forward.”

“Many things we didn’t like were dropped,” he told the British broadcaster, adding that discussions about security guarantees need to continue.

“There’s no point in signing any deal on critical minerals if Russians can reinvade one month after signing the deal,” he said.

Ukraine’s leadership has come under sustained pressure to ink a deal with the U.S. since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January. The president initially proposed that Kyiv should grant the U.S. 50% ownership of its rare earth minerals as recompense for military aid it has given Ukraine. Trump has also previously claimed in an interview that a deal would give the U.S. access to 

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and that this would be payback for aid already received by Kyiv.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy disputed the amount of wartime aid the U.S. has given Ukraine, putting the figure at around $100 billion. Independent analysis by

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, or $119.5 billion.

“From Trump I want an understanding what Ukraine can get, as well as security guarantees and contingent after the hot stage of war is ended,” Zelenskyy told the “Ukraine: Year 2025 forum” on Sunday, on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“An agreement should be win-win for American businesses and Ukraine’s people,” he added, in comments translated by NBC News. “I’m not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will be paying off.”

FILE PHOTO: Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meet at Trump Tower in New York City, U.S., September 27, 2024. 

Shannon Stapleton | Reuters

“About [the] $500 billion. Let’s deal with the figure first. I know we had $100 billion. That’s a fact. I’m not going to acknowledge $500 billion …The second thing, to be honest, I’m not even ready to fix 100 billion. I’ll explain why. Because we shouldn’t recognize grants as debts,” he said.

Zelenskyy had also noted that any assistance Ukraine was still receiving was a legacy of the previous U.S. administration under Joe Biden, adding that “as far I understand, the deal is that there is a condition for a new assistance.”

In separate comments last week,

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and that an initial proposal from the U.S. had not offered Ukraine the security guarantees it sought.

The Ukrainian leader

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 saying the proposal that had been put forward was too focused on U.S. interests and offered Ukraine very little in return.

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