Ukraine and the United States will sign a minerals agreement next Thursday, April 24.
The US President Donald Trump stated this during a speech to reporters at the White House.
"We have a minerals agreement that I think we will sign next Thursday," he said.
Trumpʼs statement came shortly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky noted at a briefing that today, April 17, a memorandum of intent with the United States could be signed online as the first step towards a subsoil agreement.
According to him, the American side proposed signing a memorandum of intent before concluding the agreement itself. The Deputy Prime Minister is currently working on the text together with US representatives.
"The memorandum of intent, that is, not the agreement itself, can be signed online today. Our side said ʼokayʼ to the American side. I understand that the Deputy Prime Minister [Yulia Svyrydenko] is working with the American side on the text," Zelensky said.
What is known about the US-Ukraine subsoil agreement?
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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