Ukraine, US say minerals deal ready for signing, although last-minute snag appears

KYIV/WASHINGTON - Ukraine and the US said on April 30 they were ready to sign a minerals deal imminently after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, but an eleventh-hour snag injected uncertainty into the timing.

“Our side is ready to sign. The Ukrainians decided last night to make some last-minute changes,” US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters at the White House.

“We’re sure that they will reconsider that and we are ready, if they are.”

A Ukrainian official was on the way to Washington for the signing. But a source said the US was pushing Ukraine to sign two additional documents and that Kyiv felt it was premature.

Mr Bessent denied the US made any attempt to change the accord the two sides agreed to over the weekend.

The agreement, which would give the United States access to Ukraine’s minerals deposits, is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with US President Donald Trump and the White House as Mr Trump tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Two sources told Reuters the signing could happen later on April 30.

Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister, Ms Yulia Svyrydenko, was flying to the US to sign the deal, the country’s prime minister said earlier.

A draft of the main minerals agreement seen by Reuters showed Ukraine had secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the US for past military assistance, something Ukraine had staunchly opposed.

Washington has been Ukraine’s single largest military donor since Russia’s 2022 invasion with aid of more than €64 billion (S$95 billion), according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.

Mr Trump repeated on April 30 that the US should get something for its prior aid to Kyiv, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine’s plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals.

“I assume they’re going to honour the deal... We haven’t really seen the fruits of that deal yet. I suspect we will,” Mr Trump said, after a Cabinet meeting on April 30.

Ukrainian officials hope that signing the deal promoted by Mr Trump will firm up American support for Kyiv in the more than three-year-old war.

The draft agreement gives the US preferential access to new Ukrainian natural resources deals but does not automatically hand Washington a share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth or any of its gas infrastructure, the draft showed.

“Indeed, it is a strategic agreement... it is a truly equal, good international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine,” Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.

The draft did not specify any concrete US security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Kyiv’s initial goals.

Separately, Ukraine has discussed with European allies the forming of an international force to help ensure Ukraine’s security if a peace agreement is reached with Russia.

Joint fund

The minerals draft sets out the creation of a joint US-Ukrainian fund for reconstruction which will receive 50 per cent of profits and royalties accruing to the Ukrainian state from new natural resources permits in Ukraine.

The draft does not spell out how the joint fund’s revenues will be spent, who benefits or who controls decisions about the spending.

Mr Shmyhal said in televised comments that once the main agreement was signed, the two sides would agree two further technical and supplementary documents outlining issues such as how the funds are accumulated.

He said Ukraine would retain control of all its resources in the deal, while the fund will invest in the development of Ukraine for 10 years.

“Ukraine will only make a contribution from new licences, from new royalties on mineral resources. This will be our contribution, 50 per cent of which will be given to this fund,” he said.

The US could use its future military assistance to Ukraine as its contribution to the fund, Mr Shmyhal said, with no previous military aid to the country reflected in the deal.

The two sides signed a memorandum, published on April 18, as an initial step towards clinching an accord on developing mineral resources in Ukraine. In the memorandum, they said they aimed to complete talks by April 26 and to sign the deal as soon as possible.

Mr Trump and officials in his administration threatened in April to walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine unless there were clear signs of progress soon. REUTERS