Ukraine’s prime minister disclosed the details of a draft minerals deal with the United States on Wednesday, saying its wording showed Washington backed Kyiv’s effort to get security guarantees, but touting nothing more concrete for now.
The deal is at the heart of Kyiv’s push to win over Donald Trump’s robust support as the U.S. president strives to reach a rapid end to the war with Russia that Ukraine’s supporters fear could come at the expense of its national interests.
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Denys Shmyhal, Ukraine’s prime minister, said the government would authorize the draft agreement later on Wednesday so it could be signed, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy expected to visit Washington on Friday to meet Trump.
He said: “After the Ukrainian president and the U.S. president agree on security guarantees, agree on how we tie this preliminary agreement to security guarantees from the United States for our country, in the presence of (both) presidents, a representative of the Ukrainian government will sign this preliminary agreement.”
The prime minister, outlining the draft in televised comments, said Kyiv would contribute 50% of “all proceeds received from the future monetisation of all relevant state-owned natural resource assets and relevant infrastructure.”
Those proceeds would go into a fund under the joint control of the United States and Ukraine, he said.
“Already existing deposits, facilities, licenses and rents are not subject to discussion when creating this fund,” he added.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Max Hunder; writing by Tom Balmforth;Editing by Louise Heavens)