Kyiv -- Washington -- We Have a Deal!

"We have formed a version of the agreement that provides mutually beneficial conditions for both countries."

"This is an agreement in which the United States notes its commitment to promoting long-term peace in Ukraine and recognizes the contribution that Ukraine has made to global security by giving up its nuclear arsenal."

"[Among terms of the agreement are] full ownership and control [with resources staying with Ukraine]." 

"All resources on our territory and in territorial waters belong to Ukraine. It is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where to extract. "

"Subsoil remains under Ukrainian ownership – this is clearly established in the Agreement."

Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister (Economy Minister) Yulia Svyrydenko

 

"As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war. [This is a] historic economic partnership."

"This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term."

"And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent 

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko sign a deal that gives the United States preferential access to Ukraine's mineral resources.

U.S. Department of the Treasury/Reuters

Finally, Ukraine has signed an agreement with the United States allowing Washington access to the country's critical minerals along with other natural resources. Kyiv had long held out for guarantees of security of its sovereign territory to accompany any such agreement. And this is what it now feels it has secured with this altered agreement. President Zelenskyy refused to sign any agreement that left out the vital assurance of protection from Russia's ongoing territorial designs on Ukraine. His adamant refusal to sign anything that left out this critical assurance angered and frustrated U.S. President Donald Trump but in the end the Ukrainian demands were unavoidable and were finally met.

 

Kyiv now feels a degree of assurance that the agreement will go a long way to securing the long-term support it needs for its existential defence against Russia's territorial imperative. Previous versions of the agreement that merited Ukraine's refusal had placed Kyiv as a junior partner in the agreement, with Washington accessing unprecedented rights to Ukraine's prized natural resources. Not yet ratified by the Ukrainian parliament, the last rendition of the agreement establishes a reconstruction fund for the embattled country that Ukraine's cabinet views as a potential insurance of future U.S. military assistance.

 

The original such agreement had been upset on the cusp of being signed when a tense Oval Office meeting between President Trump, Vice-President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy erupted into a shouting match of accusations and protestations of intent. The undiplomatic and humiliating treatment of President Zelenskyy by his Washington hosts was unprecedented. Since then a prolonged period of adjusted re-engagement finally resulted in Washington heeding Ukraine's position more clearly and Ukraine prevailing in its efforts to have President Trump fully cognizant of realities.

 

US President Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky openly clashed in the White House on February 28, when they were due to sign an earlier draft of the minerals agreement.

Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

This agreement of benefit to both sides, includes oil and natural gas along with rare earth elements, but does not include resources representing a current source of revenue for Ukraine. Where President Trump had originally demanded that profits from new investments under the deal be used to pay the U.S. for its years of material support in providing military assets to Ukraine during its war with Russia, that is no longer the case. Full ownership of the resources remains with Ukraine which will determine what can b e extracted and where it can be extracted.

 

Some 55 minerals are included specifically in the text but more can be included. Critical minerals such as titanium, lithium and uranium are included in the agreement, along with a group of 17 elements essential to a variety of consumer technology such a s cellphones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicle production. Elements such as lanthanum, cerium and scandium are also listed. Ukraine is expected to contribute 50 percent of future profits from natural resources into a fund supported through the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation. 

President Zelenskyy rejected the initial Trump administration deal where Washington expected $500 billion in profit from exploited minerals -- stating he would never sign off on an agreement "that will be paid off by ten generations of Ukrainians". Ukraine's rare earth industry's potential is not yet clear since geological data has yet to be assembled of the mineral reserves scattered across the  vast Ukrainian terrain. Ukraine's reserves of titanium, a key component in the aerospace, medical and automotive industries are thought to be among Europe's largest natural deposits. As well as some of Europe's largest known reserves of lithium in Ukraine; required for the production of batteries, ceramics and glass.

 

Nothing during times of violent conflict, is as simple as it may appear. According to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank, an estimated 40 percent of Ukraine's metallic mineral resources are under Russian occupation, and therefore inaccessible. All the more reason for the United States to protect its investment in Ukraine under this agreement by enforcing a 'hands off' warning to Moscow in its intentions to continue annexing Ukrainian territory to be absorbed into Greater Russia. How and whether serious negotiations take place between Ukraine and Russia forcing Ukraine to cede territory to Russian aggression is a matter for another place and another time. 

 

An excavator mines rare earth materials in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine in February 2025, as companies continue operations despite the war.  Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images