The administration of the US President Donald Trump wants to change the terms of the mineral agreement with Ukraine. In particular, they may allegedly add access to Ukrainian nuclear power plants to the expanded agreement.
This is reported by the Financial Times (FT), citing sources.
Washington wants Kyiv to agree to clear rules for the ownership and management of the joint investment fund, as well as a broader scope of the deal that could include American ownership of other economic assets, including Ukrainian nuclear power plants. Such steps effectively mean a revision of the as-yet-unsigned minerals agreement, the FT notes.
On the eve of the meeting, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky denied that he had discussed with Trump the possibility of transferring the Zaporizhzhia NPP or other nuclear power plants to the US.
“I told him that if [the Zaporizhzhia NPP] is not Ukrainian, it will not work for anyone. This is illegal. It will not be able to. And we cannot simply dispose of this station, because it is state-owned,” the president said. Zelensky stressed that Ukraine is ready to discuss issues of investment in Ukrainian nuclear power plants and their modernization, but the issue of ownership of the stations was not discussed.
Ukrainian officials are concerned that the Americans will pressure them to agree to unfavorable terms in an expanded agreement, especially after Washington temporarily suspended arms supplies and intelligence sharing with Kyiv.
The two sides are now engaged in complex negotiations covering broader economic and security issues, Ukrainian and American officials said.
“We are ready to sign it [the agreement]. It would be strange to ignore it,” said a senior Ukrainian official close to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. So far, Kyiv has not been shown the new terms of the agreement.
Ukraine officially announced that the text of the agreement on minerals was ready. Prior to this, Western media also reported on possible changes and new desires of Donald Trump in the context of this agreement.
What preceded
The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought a pilot draft of a minerals agreement to Ukraine on February 12. Washington hoped that Kyiv would sign it immediately. President Zelensky said that he had banned the signing of the agreement because it would not be able to protect Ukraine’s interests — it had no connection to investments, profits, or security guarantees. After that, they began to refine it.
The agreement was supposed to be signed on February 28, during Volodymyr Zelenskyʼs visit to the White House. However, then Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president had a fight — the Ukrainian delegation left the White House early. The document was not signed then. However, both sides stated that negotiations on the agreement were continuing.
After that, CBS News wrote that Trump is pushing for a “bigger, better deal” with Ukraine on rare earths. The publication’s sources noted that the version of the agreement that was brought to the United States is not final — some of its points may change.
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