The United States will share the future revenues of the Ukrainian mineral reserves as part of an agreement announced by the Trump administration on Wednesday that creates a joint investment fund among the countries.
The agreement comes after months of serious negotiations while the United States are looking for brokers for the end of the three -year war of Ukraine with Russia. It aims to give President Trump a personal participation in the fate of the country while addressed to his concerns that the United States has provided Kiev a white check to try to resist the invasion of Russia.
“This agreement clearly reports in Russia according to which the Trump administration is engaged in a peace process focused on a free, sovereign and long -term prosperous Ukraine,” said Treasury Secretary Scott Beesent in a note. “President Trump has imagined this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show the commitment of both sides in peace and lasting prosperity in Ukraine”.
He added: “and to be clear, no state or person who has financed or provided the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine”.
The Trump administration did not immediately provide details on the agreement and it was not clear what it means for the future of American military support to Ukraine. A person who is familiar with the negotiations, discussing them on condition of anonymity, said that the final agreement does not include explicit guarantees of future assistance to the security of the United States. Another said the United States rejected that idea at the beginning of the process. Despite the fanfare, the agreement will have little meaning if it persists in Ukraine and Russia.
But the supporters of Ukraine hope that the agreement can induce Mr. Trump to see the country as something more than a hole of money and an obstacle to improve relationships with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
The concept of giving the United States a participation in Ukraine minerals was offered for the first time in Trump by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, during a meeting at the Trump Tower last September.
While the announcement did not mention Ukrainian minerals, a spokesman for the Treasury Department stated that the agreement referred to the pact of natural resources that had been the subject of negotiations.
The Treasury Department stated that the US International Development Finance Corporation would work with Ukraine to finalize the details of the agreement.
In a post on Telegram, the Ukrainian Prime Minister, Denys Shmyhal, wrote that the two countries would have equal voting rights on the bottom and that Ukraine would have maintained full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources. He also said that the profits of the investment fund would be reinvested in Ukraine.
“Thanks to this agreement, we will be able to attract significant resources for reconstruction, start economic growth and receive the latest technologies from the partners and a strategic investor in the United States,” said Shmyhal, according to a translation of his place.
In Washington, many Ukraine allies have issued a limited sigh of relief, defining the agreement a considerable improvement compared to previous versions – and a sign that Kyiv can work constructively with Mr. Trump.
“They obtained a much better mineral agreement” than the one proposed for the first time, said William B. Taylor, a former Ambassador of the United States to Kiev. “The Americans took many Ukrainian suggestions.”
“A good sign for the negotiations of ceased fire,” added Taylor.
A former American official who is familiar with the negotiations said that the Trump administration has rejected at least one Ukrainian effort to include explicit guarantees on safety, such as the continuation of US military aid to Kiev.
But the former official said that the agreement would serve the important purpose of building a good will with Mr. Trump and give him an economic interest in the survival and stability of the country.
The agreement had been delayed after an explosive meeting in the oval office at the end of February between President Trump and Mr. Zelensky. In the two months since then, the main critical point of the negotiations focused on the fact that the American help given in Ukraine since Russia launched its vast invasion in February 2022 would have been treated as a debt that Ukraine needed to repay.
Trump said Ukraine should reimburse money. Ukrainian officials said that by accepting to make him financially punish the country for generations.
Initially Ukraine has proposed to attract American investments to the mines in Ukraine as an incentive for the United States to support any peace agreement with security guarantees to prevent Russian aggression in the future.
But the interviews on the agreement have been controversial since their start in February. In addition to saying that Ukraine needed to reimburse the United States for its help, Trump has also said that Ukraine should look at Europe, not to the United States, for any security guarantees.
The previous drafts had turned between what critics called a brazen extortion of Ukraine by the Trump administration and the versions that included points sought by Ukraine, such as references to US support for post -war security guarantees. Without them, says Ukraine, Russia could rapidly violate any fire or restart the war after the grouping and rearmament.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Zelensky had to sign an agreement in the White House in February. But instead of signing it, Trump and vice -president JD Vance replied the Ukrainian leader in front of television cameras, saying that he was not grateful enough for American assistance. Mr. Zelensky was asked to leave.
The Trump administration has therefore briefly suspended the delivery of all US military aid and the sharing of intelligence for Ukraine. Trump said that Mr. Zelensky “should be more grateful” to restart negotiations.
Mr. Zelensky went on with an Outure the following day, defining the meeting of the “deplorable” oval office.
Some inside and outside Ukraine have seen the agreement as nothing more than the United States that exploit Ukraine dependence on American weapons and financial support to win the control of precious natural resources, without offering strong guarantees in return. American negotiators said that US investments would discourage future aggression.
In a memorandum of intent to conclude the agreement, signed on April 16, Ukraine and the United States outlined an agreement to constitute a fund for investments in post -war reconstruction.
In addition to opening opportunities for U.S. mining companies, oil or natural gas, the fund could guide the reconstruction work, which should be a company of billions of dollars if you reach a ceased for fire, for American companies.
But Mr. Zelensky clarified that the mineral agreement is not an end in itself. Walking through the agreement is aimed at clarifying the road to more consequential interviews on US military support and on the terms of a possible ceasefire with Russia, he said.
“We see this agreement as a step towards greater safety and solid guarantees of security, and I really hope it works effectively,” said Zelensky in March in a post on X.
The Ukrainian authorities say that the country holds deposits of over 20 critical minerals; A consultancy firm evaluated them as several trillion dollars was worth them. But they may not be easy to extract and the maps of the Soviet era that outline where the critical deposits have never been modernized nor have they been all controlled in depth.
Ukraine now earns about $ 1 billion per year in Royalties with natural resources, much below hundreds of billions of dollars, Mr. Trump said he was expecting the United States to earn the agreement.
The revenue sharing agreement arrives in a dangerous moment for Ukraine: the Russian forces seized the advantage on the battlefield and Mr. Trump approached Mr. Putin.
An agreement of ceased the fire proposed by the United States-at least the terms that have been made public-favors Russia. He would have built Kyiv to abandon his aspirations to join the NATO, would offer Ukraine only vague guarantees of security and see the United States officially recognizing Crimea as Russian. Ukraine rejected this agreement.
The Trump administration repeatedly threatened to move away from peace negotiations. On Sunday, Mr. Trump said he wanted an agreement of ceased fire in two weeks or less-in the following, he said that a little more time could be acceptable.
But Mr. Trump also insisted that the mineral agreement was to be signed. On Friday, he said that Ukraine was at least three weeks late in signing the mineral agreement with the United States “hopefully, he will be signed immediately,” he wrote on Truth Social.
On Wednesday there was a certain uncertainty about the agreement, since the Ukrainian officials arrived in Washington and indicated that they were looking for some changes late.
During a cabinet meeting at the White House, Beesent expressed optimism for the fact that the agreement, which according to him was reached in principle during the weekend, would soon be signed.
“The Ukrainians decided last night to make some changes at the last minute,” said Bessent. “We are sure they will reconsider him and we are ready to sign this afternoon if they are.”
Cassandra Vineyard, Constant meheut AND Oleksandra Mykolyshyn Contributed relationships.