Ukraine has agreed on terms of minerals deal with US, senior official says

Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the United States and could sign it on Friday, a Ukrainian official said, in a move Kyiv hopes will lay the ground for future security guarantees from Washington.

US President Donald Trump had demanded that Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars of wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.

The deal would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine’s mineral wealth, with revenues going to a newly created fund that would be “joint for Ukraine and America”, a senior Ukrainian source said on the condition of anonymity late on Tuesday.

The source said the draft of the deal included a reference to “security”, but did not explicitly set out the United States’s commitments – one of Kyiv’s prior demands for an agreement.

“There is a general clause that says America will invest in a stable and prosperous sovereign Ukraine, that it works for a lasting peace, and that America supports efforts to guarantee security.”

“Now government officials are working on the details,” the source said, adding that President Volodymyr Zelensky could sign it on a trip to Washington as early as Friday.