After months of negotiations, the US and Ukraine have finally signed a deal that will give the US access to Ukraine's valuable rare minerals. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a video posted to X on Wednesday that "this partnership allows the United States to invest alongside Ukraine, to unlock Ukraine's growth assets, mobilize American talent, capital and governance standards that will improve Ukraine's investment climate, and accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery." Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko confirmed to the AP that she had signed the deal in Washington on behalf of Ukraine's government. In a post on X, she said, "Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment to our country."
"Today's agreement signals clearly to Russian leadership that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term," Bessent said. "It's time for this cruel and senseless war to end." The economic deal comes after Trump's push for Ukraine to compensate Washington for billions in military and economic assistance to help Ukraine repel the Russian invasion. The deal establishes a United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund that the administration has said will help repay an estimated $175 billion in aid, the Guardian reports. But a draft of the agreement seen by the BBC shows that it has been renegotiated since Volodymyr Zelensky's tense White House meeting with Trump in February, with some concessions to Ukraine.
"The draft says the cost of future US military assistance given to Ukraine will count as part of the American investment in the fund," writes BBC correspondent Tom Bateman. "That means Ukraine will, in effect, be giving Washington access to some of its natural resources in return for future US security assistance." The Ukrainian Cabinet approved the agreement Wednesday, empowering Svyrydenko to sign it, the AP reports. (More Ukraine stories.)
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