The Ukrainian delegation will soon travel to Washington for another round of negotiations on the minerals agreement, and will also separately engage a law firm to accompany the negotiation process.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha told reporters in Brussels, reports a Babel correspondent.
"This agreement is being analyzed for compliance with Ukrainian legislation, because it must meet the interests of both countries. And we have our own legislation. This agreement cannot contradict our European integration course, and we are directly telling the American side about this," he emphasized.
Therefore, the negotiations will be accompanied by "one of the most famous law firms", it will assist the negotiating team and at the same time will conduct its own track directly with American lawyers.
"We expect that the Ukrainian delegation will leave for Washington in the short term to discuss the provisions of the agreement received from the US on mineral resources," Sybiha noted.
And he added that the words "short term" should mean a week or two.
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. However, President Zelensky said that he had banned the signing of the agreement because it would not be able to protect Ukraine’s interests — there is no connection to investments, profits, and security guarantees. After that, it began to be finalized.
The final 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 falling out — the Ukrainian delegation left the White House early. The document was not signed. However, both sides stated that negotiations on the agreement were ongoing.
The United States is now proposing a new deal on Ukrainian minerals, as well as oil and gas, without offering security guarantees in return. The Financial Times, which has seen the draft agreement, writes that Washington is aggressively expanding its demands. In Kiev, it believes that this could undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty, divert profits abroad and deepen the country’s dependence on the United States. However, Kiev will ask to change the agreement, demanding in return increased American investment. The US President Donald Trump has already threatened Zelensky with “big problems” if he abandons the subsoil deal.
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