Olusegun Ariyo
Ukrainian officials on Friday said the terms of a mineral deal between Ukraine and the US have not yet been finalised, after a summary of Washington’s latest offer showed it demanding all of Ukraine’s natural resources income for years.
According to the summary, the latest US proposal would require Kyiv to send Washington all profits from a fund controlling Ukrainian resources until Ukraine had repaid all American wartime aid, plus interest.
Speaking with lawmakers, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said Kyiv would issue its position on the new draft only once there was consensus, adding that until then, public discussion would be harmful.
A senior official in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office, Mykhailo Podolyak, said there was no finalised draft for now, stressing that consultations were still happening at the level of the various ministries.
It was gathered that the Trump administration, which has reoriented Washington’s policy towards endorsing Russia’s narrative about the three-year-old war in Ukraine, has been pressing Kyiv for weeks to sign a deal giving Washington a stake in Ukraine’s resources.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly said he accepts the idea, although he would not sign an agreement that would impoverish his country.
On Thursday, he said Washington was constantly changing the terms but that he did not want the US to think he was opposed in principle.
