KYIV/MUNICH: Ukraine on Friday handed the US its proposals for a bilateral minerals deal after finishing working on them, two Ukrainian sources said, as Kyiv tries to win the backing of US President Donald Trump in his bid to end the war with Russia.
The US side asked for until 5pm to examine the proposals, with President Volodymyr Zelensky expected to meet US vice president JD Vance later at the Munich Security Conference, the two sources from the Ukrainian delegation said.
Kyiv has said it is ready for an agreement to open up its vast resources of key minerals, to US investment as it seeks to obtain US security guarantees as part of any deal to end the war with Russia.
Asked if there would be a minerals deal agreed between Washington and Kyiv on Friday, Vance said in Munich: “let’s see.”
The minerals in question would include the rare earth variety, titanium, uranium and lithium among others.
The agreement is at the heart of Kyiv’s push to win the backing of Trump, who has set his sights on a rapid end to the war without saying how he wants to achieve that.
US treasury secretary Scott Bessent travelled to Kyiv on Wednesday, when Ukraine was presented with a draft accord drawn up by the US. Zelensky said Kyiv would study it with a view to reaching an agreement in Munich.
Bessent told Fox Business Network on Friday that the Trump administration’s plan to end the war would intertwine Kyiv’s economy with the US, with the US bringing its “best practices” of privatisation.
He said: “Part of it starts with intertwining the… Ukrainian economy more with the US, and making sure that US taxpayers receive the return for the money they put in.”
It is unclear what exactly is in the deal and whether the US draft contained any security provisions for Ukraine that it desperately seeks to protect it from a future Russian invasion in the event peace can be negotiated.
‘One-sided’ offer?
Trump, who has not committed to continuing vital military assistance to Ukraine, has said he wants US$500 billion in rare earth minerals from Kyiv and that Washington’s support needs to be “secured”.
Meeting for 90 minutes with a bipartisan group of US senators in Munich, Zelensky voiced concern about the US proposal for investment in Ukrainian minerals presented earlier, three sources familiar with his presentation said.
He “felt he was being asked unreasonably to sign something he hadn’t had a chance to read”, one of them said on condition of anonymity.
“I don’t think he appreciated being given a take-it-or-leave-it thing.”
Zelensky discussed his own proposal for a mineral deal with the US, the source said, saying it was drafted to comply with the Ukrainian constitution.
Two other sources characterised the proposal delivered by Bessent as “one-sided”, but declined to elaborate.
Democratic senator Brian Schatz, asked after the meeting if Zelensky considered the US proposal one-sided, responded: “I think that’s fair to say.”
Schatz said that the Trump proposal “needs massaging,” but declined to go into detail.
Zelensky set out the contours of a deal in a Reuters interview last week, unfurling a map showing numerous mineral deposits and saying he was offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly and not “giving them away”.
