Ukraine-US minerals deal talks to begin April 11-12 in Washington

Ukrainian officials are preparing for a “technical” round of negotiations with the United States regarding an agreement on Ukraine’s mineral resources, with both President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal emphasizing Ukraine’s key demands.

According to Suspilne, Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy revealed during a meeting with journalists that the technical round of the talks will take place in Washington on 11-12 April. Deputy Economy Minister Taras Kachka will lead the Ukrainian delegation at the meeting of technical teams aimed at developing the main principles of the agreement.

Zelenskyy stressed that equal partnership in fund management would be a key negotiating point for the Ukrainian team.

“There must be parity. It doesn’t matter where you get the money from. And if you’re a partner in a fund where everything should be 50/50 – you can’t just take what was there. You can count on modernization, future extraction,” the President emphasized.

Previously, Zelenskyy has repeatedly stated that Ukraine would not sign any agreement that includes Ukrainian debt to the US for previously provided military assistance. 

Red lines

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Shmyhal outlined specific conditions during a joint press conference in Brussels on 9 April following a meeting of the Ukraine-EU Association Council with EU diplomatic chief Kaja Kallas and Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos.

“First, it’s our Constitution. Second, it’s our European integration aspirations and our European obligations. This is another ‘red line’ of international law. We also understand that this must be a partnership agreement on equal terms for both sides,” Shmyhal stated.

On 8 April, the Ukrainian Cabinet approved the allocation of 113 million hryvnias or 2.7 million from the state budget reserve fund for consultants regarding the agreement.

“We are also working with international law firms, and we will send our delegation together with our lawyers to the US at the end of this week. And I think technical negotiations will continue until next week, and then we will see the results after these negotiations,” Shmyhal added.

President Zelenskyy had previously mentioned that Ukraine would select one law firm from three candidates to represent its interests.

Minerals deal

The mineral resources agreement has a complex negotiation history dating back to February. Dubbed as “colonial-style deal” in the press, one Ukrainian official described the latest iteration of the offer as if Ukraine had lost a war to the US and was now forced to pay lifetime reparations.

Notably, none of the US proposals included security guarantees, which were the primary reason Ukraine floated the idea of the deal to Trump last fall.

• On 12 February, Zelenskyy reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought to Ukraine a draft agreement on access to Ukrainian mineral resources worth $500 billion in exchange for Washington’s assistance. Two days later, Ukraine finalized its own draft memorandum and passed it to the American side.
• By 15 February, Zelenskyy announced at the Munich Security Conference that he refused to allow the signing of an agreement with the United States on rare earth metals because it wasn’t ready to protect Ukrainian interests.
• According to NV, citing five officials working on the document, a new version of the Ukraine-US agreement reported on 22 February was stricter than previous drafts and provided for 100% ownership by Americans, with security guarantees discussions moved outside this arrangement.
• On 24 February, Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna claimed that both teams were in the final negotiation stages, with “almost all key details already agreed upon.” Prime Minister Shmyhal announced that the agreement had been processed.
• President Zelenskyy later claimed that the approved agreement does not include the previously mentioned “$500 billion” clause. Instead, he explained that Ukraine and the US would be co-owners of a fund, with Ukraine transferring 50% of revenue from future extraction of mineral resources and rare earth metals.
• Later, after heated exchanges between Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the White House, the deal progress effectively stalled.
• In March, the US sent Ukraine an updated proposal, which included effective US control over the fund’s management body and the transfer of 100% of the revenues, and expanded the deal to include Ukraine’s oil and gas sectors. The proposal assumed that Washington’s contribution to the agreement would be the assistance provided to Kyiv since 2022.

While Zelenskyy noted that the agreement doesn’t specify all the security guarantees Ukraine wants, the text does state that the United States supports “Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees necessary for sustainable peace.”

The President also added:

“I won’t agree to even 10 cents if they are indicated as debt.”