Ukraine has rejected the US demands to create a $500 billion fund that would be part of a deal to give Washington a share in rare earth minerals.
Bloomberg writes about this, citing a Ukrainian source.
This fund is supposed to compensate the United States for the aid it has been providing to Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion. Ukraine claims that the actual amount of such aid is about five times less and amounts to more than $90 billion, the source said.
Negotiators need more time to finalize the deal because the current draft agreement proposed by the United States contains some questionable elements and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is not ready to approve it, said another source familiar with the negotiations.
What kind of agreement on Ukrainian minerals?
The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought a pilot draft of a minerals agreement to Ukraine on February 12. Washington had hoped that Kyiv would sign it immediately. President Zelensky said that he had banned the agreement from being signed because it would not protect Ukraine’s interests — it had no connection to investments, profits, or security guarantees.
Previously, Trump had stated that Ukraine had "essentially agreed" to transfer half a trillion dollars worth of rare earth metals to Washington as payment for American military aid.
Ukraine is ready to sign an agreement on rare earth metals, but Kyiv needs security guarantees, and they were not in the agreement. Zelensky added: "The document was clear in only one thing — we must give 50% of everything that is listed there."
After refusing to sign the document, Washington made the agreement even tougher, writes the NYT. Now the US demands 100% of revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as revenues from ports and other infrastructure.
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