US pushing more expansive minerals deal with Ukraine: Sources

WASHINGTON - The Trump administration has proposed a new, more expansive minerals deal with Ukraine, according to three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations and a summary of a draft proposal obtained by Reuters.

The US has revised its original proposal, said the sources, and it gives Ukraine no future security guarantees but requires it to contribute all of its income from the use of natural resources managed by state and private enterprises across Ukrainian territory to a joint investment fund.

The terms put forward by Washington go well beyond the deal discussed in the days leading up to the contentious Oval Office meeting in February between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has been leading negotiations for the United States, said one of the sources.

Mr Bessent did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The proposal makes no mention of the US taking ownership of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to the summary – something Mr Trump had talked about.

Mr Trump has said that a minerals deal will help secure a peace agreement by giving the US a financial stake in Ukraine’s future. He also sees it as America’s way of earning back some of the tens of billions of dollars it has given to Ukraine in financial and military aid since Russia invaded three years ago.

National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt declined to confirm the terms of the latest proposal, but said the deal would strengthen the relationship between the US and Ukraine.

“The mineral deal offers Ukraine the opportunity to form an enduring economic relationship with the United States that is the basis for long-term security and peace,” said Mr Hewitt.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An earlier version of the deal proposed a joint investment fund where Ukraine would contribute 50 per cent of proceeds from future profits of the extraction of state-owned natural resources. It also set out terms that the US and Ukraine would jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral resources.

Mr Zelensky told reporters on March 25 that the US had proposed a “major” new deal and that Ukrainian officials were still reviewing its terms.

He said on March 27 that the US is “constantly” changing the terms of the proposed minerals deal, but added that he did not want Washington to think Kyiv was against the deal.

In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, Mr Bessent said the US had “passed along a completed document for the economic partnership” and that Washington hopes to “go to full discussions and perhaps even get signatures next week”.

The new proposal stipulates that the US is given first rights to purchase resources extracted under the agreement and that it recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, in addition to a 4 per cent annual interest rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the fund’s profits, according to the summary. The updated proposal was first reported by the Financial Times.

If agreed, the joint investment fund would have a board of five people – three appointed by the US and two by Ukraine – and the funds generated would be converted into foreign currency and transferred abroad, according to the summary. The fund would be managed by the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC).

A separate source with knowledge of the negotiations said there had been discussions about having the DFC administer the fund. REUTERS