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The United States and Ukraine have signed a minerals deal after a two-month delay, in what President Donald Trump’s administration called a new form of US commitment to Ukraine after the end of military aid.
Ukraine said it secured key interests after protracted negotiations, including full sovereignty over its own rare earths, which are vital for new technologies and largely untapped.
Trump had initially demanded rights to Ukraine’s mineral wealth as compensation for the billions of dollars in US weapons sent under former president Joe Biden after Russia invaded just over three years ago.
After initial hesitation, Ukraine has accepted a minerals accord as a way to secure long-term investment by the US, as Trump tries to drastically scale back US security commitments around the world.
Announcing the signing of the deal in Washington, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said it showed “both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine”.
“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” Bessent said.
“And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
In Kyiv, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on national television the agreement was “good, equal and beneficial”.
In a post on Telegram, Shmyhal said the two countries would establish a reconstruction investment fund, with each side having 50 per cent voting rights.
“Ukraine retains full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources,” he said.
Meeting a key concern for Ukraine, he said Ukraine would not be asked to pay back any “debt” for the billions of dollars in US weapons and other support since Russia invaded in February 2022.
“The fund’s profits will be reinvested exclusively in Ukraine,” he said.
Trump had originally sought $500 billion in mineral wealth — around four times what the US has contributed to Ukraine since the war.
Trump says US presence will keep ‘bad actors’ out of Ukraine
Trump has resisted offering security guarantees to Ukraine and has rejected its aspiration to join NATO.
But Trump said a US presence on the ground would benefit Ukraine.
“The American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we’re doing the digging,” Trump said at the cabinet meeting.
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