US, Ukraine to sign critical minerals deal next Thursday, says Trump

By Natalia Drozdiak and Josh Wingrove

 

President Donald Trump said the US and Ukraine would sign a deal on critical minerals next Thursday, in a step expected to keep Kyiv in good favour as the White House seeks to broker a quick ceasefire deal with Russia.

 

“We have a minerals deal which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday,” Trump said while meeting with Italian Prime Minster Giorgia Meloni in the Oval Office. “And I assume they’re going to live up to the deal.”

 

The announcement puts the agreement — which fell through after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office — back on track, and suggests both sides have agreed to the contours of the accord governing postwar plans to exploit the country’s mineral deposits and rebuild its infrastructure.

 

The agreement comes as Trump has vacillated between blaming Moscow and Kyiv for failing to end the war that began with Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Trump has demanded a joint US-Ukraine development deal as compensation for the weapons and other aid the US provided under his predecessor, Joe Biden.

 

Earlier this months Ukraine and US have conducted technical discussions on the deal and agreed to sign transitional memorandum of intent, fixing the positive steps, made by the parties. The document was signed online late Thursday, clearing the way “for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” Ukraine’s Vice Prime-Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said in a post on X.    

 

“This document is the result of the professional work of the negotiating teams, which recently completed another round of technical discussions in Washington,” Svyrydenko added. 

 

The partnership accord would grant the US first claim on profits transferred into a special reconstruction investment fund that would be controlled by Washington. In negotiations, Kyiv has pressed for better terms and refused to recognize the past US assistance as debt.

 

Following a round of negotiations in Washington, the Trump administration reduced its estimate for the assistance the US provided to Kyiv since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion from $300 billion to about $100 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. This bring it closer to Ukraine’s own estimate of more than $90 billion.

 

Trump backtracked from recent comments in which he said Zelenskiy was to blame for the war in Ukraine — while still lobbing criticism at the Ukrainian leader.

 

“I don’t hold Zelenskiy responsible but I’m not exactly thrilled with the fact that war started,” Trump said. He added that he was not happy with Zelenskiy because of the bloody toll of the war.

 

“I wouldn’t say he’s done the greatest job,” he said. “I’m not a fan.”

 

Still, Trump said, his attention was on getting Russian leader Vladimir Putin to agree to end the fighting.

 

“I’m trying to get him to stop, because as you know, Russia’s a lot bigger,” Trump said.