By Tom Balmforth and Yuliia Dysa
KYIV (Reuters) -Ukraine said on Wednesday it was poised to sign a minerals deal with the United States imminently after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, although a source familiar with the matter said a last-minute snag had appeared.
Ukraine’s prime minister said First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko was flying to the United States to sign the deal, which is central to Kyiv’s efforts to mend ties with Donald Trump and the White House as the U.S. president tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Two sources told Reuters the signing could happen later on Wednesday. But one source said the U.S. was pushing Ukraine to sign two additional documents as well as the main minerals deal and that Kyiv felt they were not ready yet.
“Who knows — maybe today they will take (those) two docs and finish them too,” the source said.
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 U.S. for past military assistance, something Ukraine had staunchly opposed.
Ukrainian officials hope that signing the deal promoted by Trump will help firm up softening American support for Kyiv in the more than three-year-old war.
The draft agreement gives the U.S. 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.
JOINT FUND
The draft sets out the creation of a joint U.S.-Ukrainian fund for reconstruction which will receive 50% 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.
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 a period of 10 years.
“Ukraine will only make a contribution from new licenses, from new royalties on mineral resources. This will be our contribution, 50% of which will be given to this fund,” he said.
The U.S. could use its future military assistance to Ukraine as its contribution to the fund, 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.
Trump and officials in his administration threatened this month to walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there were clear signs of progress soon.
Ukraine has relied on military aid from the U.S., ranging from air defence to long-range missiles, to repel Russia’s onslaught since Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February, 2022.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in February of this year that American aid comprised around 30% of the weapons and equipment used to defend the country.
On April 28, Shmyhal said Kyiv had agreed that past U.S. aid provided to Kyiv would not be counted as part of a minerals deal.
Visiting the U.S. last week, Shmyhal met U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and reported “good progress” on the agreement.
Shmyhal also said that Kyiv had clearly defined the red lines regarding the agreement’s compliance with Ukraine’s European obligations and Ukrainian legislation.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth and Yulia Dysa; writing by Anastasiia Malenko; editing by Andrew Heavens, Mark Heinrich, Philippa Fletcher and Timothy Heritage)
