The terms of a mining agreement between Ukraine and the US have not yet been completed, Ukrainian officials reported this Friday, after a summary of Washington’s last offer suggested that he demanded all the income of Ukraine for natural resources for years.
The last American proposal would require kyiv to send Washington all the benefits of a fund that controls Ukrainian resources until Ukraine would have reimbursed all American help in times of war, plus interest, according to the summary, to which Reuters had access.
The Vice Prime Ukrainian Minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, told the legislators that kyiv would only issue her position on the new draft once a consensus was reached. Until then, the public debate would be harmful, he said.
Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior official of President Volodimir Zelenski’s office, declared that there is no draft ended for now: “The consultations are still being carried out at the level of the different ministries,” he said, refusing to give more details. Another Ukrainian source described the complete document presented by Americans as “extensive.”
The Trump administration, who reoriented Washington’s policy to support the Russian narrative about the three -year war in Ukraine, has been pressing kyiv for weeks to sign an agreement that gives Washington a participation in Ukrainian resources.
Zelenski reiterated his acceptance of the idea, although he would not sign an agreement that impoverished his country. On Thursday, he said that Washington constantly changed the terms, but that he did not want the United States to think in principle.
Three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations said that Washington had reviewed their proposals. The last draft does not offer future security guarantees to Ukraine and requires it to contribute to a joint investment fund with all income from the use of natural resources managed by state and private companies.
According to the summary, it stipulates that Washington will have a priority to buy the resources extracted and recover all the money that has been delivered to Ukraine since 2022, plus interest at an annual rate of 4%, before Ukraine begins to access the profits of the fund.
The budget revenues of Ukraine by 2024 included, among other things, 1.2 billion dollars in rental payments for the use of subsoil resources, 1.8 billion dollars in dividends and other payments of state participation in state companies, and 19.4 billion dollars from the profits of said companies, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.
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The Joint Investment Fund would be managed by the International Financial Corporation for the Development of the United States and would have a Board of Directors of five people, three designated by the United States and two by Ukraine. The funds would become foreign currency and transferred abroad.
An earlier version of the agreement, which Ukraine agreed in principle before Zelenskiy’s visit to the White House last month, included terms that seemed more favorable for Ukraine. Proposed a joint investment fund in which Ukraine would contribute 50 % of the income from the future profits of state natural resources.
Zelenski’s visit on February 28 culminated with Trump’s reprimands in the Oval Office, later for several days when Washington suspended all support for intelligence and military aid to Ukraine.
Since then, Zelenski has acted with caution, repeatedly thanking the support of the United States.
Earlier this month, Ukraine accepted an American proposal of a high 30 -day fire, despite Russia’s rejection.
Last week, Ukraine and Russia agreed to suspend attacks on energy infrastructure and the sea, but Moscow demanded that international sanctions be softened before accepting the maritime truce.
The Treasury Secretary, Scott Besent, has led negotiations on the mining agreement. In an interview with Fox News earlier this week, he said that the United States had “delivered a complete document for the Economic Association” and that Washington expected “perhaps even getting signatures next week.”
Trump said a mining agreement will help ensure a peace agreement by granting the United States a financial participation in the future of Ukraine. He also sees it as the United States way to recover part of the tens of billions of dollars that has granted Ukraine in financial and military aid from the Russian invasion in 2022. Most of the aid funds were spent in the United States.
The summary of the proposal does not mention that the United States assumes the property of the nuclear power plants of Ukraine, another proposal that Trump has raised.
With Reuters information
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