The United States and Ukraine have signed a draft agreement on rare earths, Ukrainian Economy Minister Julia Swiridenko announced on Friday. The agreement, seen by Washington as a way to recover taxpayer money invested in the Ukraine conflict, could be finalized and signed as early as next week. Swiridenko wrote on social media: “We are pleased to announce the signing of a memorandum of understanding with our American partners, which paves the way for a trade partnership agreement and the establishment of an investment fund for the reconstruction of Ukraine.” However, she did not provide any details. She referred to the document as “the result of the professional work of the negotiating teams” in the past week and added: “We are still working on the agreement itself. There is still much to do, but the current pace and significant progress suggest that the document will be of great benefit to both countries.” US President Donald Trump hinted on Thursday that the final mineral agreement could be signed as early as next week. In an audio recording, Trump said: “We have an agreement on minerals, which I think will be signed next Thursday. And I assume they will live up to the agreement. We’ll see, but we have an agreement on that.” Washington and Kiev have been negotiating for weeks over an agreement that would grant the US access to Ukraine’s rare earth deposits and other resources. The Trump administration insists that the agreement should be used to compensate for earlier US aid to Ukraine. Kiev, however, insisted that the US aid was unconditional. This week, Bloomberg reported that the US has reduced its estimate of its aid to Ukraine from over $300 billion to about $100 billion, but still considers it as a means of compensation for financial losses. According to the agency’s sources, the Trump administration also hesitated to commit to future investments in the joint fund, which was one of Kiev’s priorities. The signing of the agreement was initially planned for the end of February. The ceremony was supposed to take place during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose regular term expired in May last year, to the White House. However, this failed due to the publicly aired dispute in the Oval Office, where Trump accused Zelenskyy of not respecting America and not being grateful for US aid to Ukraine. Additionally, the US President declared at that time that the Kiev ruler was not ready for peace with Russia and was risking a Third World War.
US Gains Control Over Ukraine’s Reserves?
