- The United States Secretary of the United States announces the signing of the agreement in Washington.
- He says he showed the commitment of both parties to lasting peace in Ukraine.
- Deal shows Trump’s commitment to Free Ukraine: Besent.
Washington: United States and Ukraine signed a mineral agreement on Wednesday after a two -month delay, in what the administration of President Donald Trump called a new form of commitment from the United States with kyiv after the end of military aid.
Ukraine said he assured key interests after prolonged negotiations, including complete sovereignty over his own rare earths, which are vital for new technologies and largely without exploiting.
Initially, Trump had demanded rights over the mineral wealth of Ukraine as compensation for billions of dollars in American weapons sent under former President Joe Biden after Russia invaded just over three years ago.
After the initial doubt, Ukraine has accepted a mineral agreement as a way to ensure long -term investment by the United States, since Trump tries to drastically reduce the security commitments of the United States worldwide.
By announcing the signing of the agreement in Washington, the secretary of the Treasury, Scott Besent, said he showed “the commitment of both parties to peace and lasting prosperity in Ukraine.”
“This agreement clearly indicates to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process focused on a free, sovereign and prosperous long -term Ukraine,” Besent said.
“And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplies the Russian war machine can benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
In kyiv, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on national television that the agreement was “good, equal and beneficial.”
In a publication on Telegram, Shmygal said the two countries would establish a reconstruction investment fund with each side that has 50 percent of voting rights.
“Ukraine retains total control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources,” he said.
With a key concern for kyiv, he said that Ukraine would not be asked to pay any “debt” for the billions of dollars in US weapons. And another support since Russia invaded in February 2022.
“The background profits will be reinvested exclusively in Ukraine,” he said.
Trump had originally sought $ 500 billion in mineral wealth, about four times what the United States has contributed to Ukraine since the war.
Presence of the United States against ‘bad actors’
Trump has resisted offering security guarantees to Ukraine and has rejected his aspiration to join NATO.
But Trump said Wednesday that a presence in the United States would benefit Ukraine.
“The American presence, I think, will keep many bad actors out of the country or certainly outside the area where we are digging,” Trump said at the cabinet meeting.
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, threatened Tuesday that the Trump administration would resign from mediation in the conflict, which Trump had promised during the campaign to end the first day in office, unless the two parties are presented with “concrete proposals.”
Trump has pressed for an agreement in which Ukraine would resign from some territory seized by Russia, which has rejected the proposals backed by the United States for a high fire of at least 30 days.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out any formal concession to Russia of Crimea, the Peninsula was seized in 2014 and whose annexation of Moscow is internationally rejected.
But Zelensky has been responsible for expressing support for Trump’s diplomacy after a disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where Trump and Vice President JD Vance reprimanded him for allegedly being ungrateful for US assistance.
Zelensky had to sign the mineral agreement in the White House, but the door was abruptly shown after the impressive dispute in the camera.
Ukraine has about five percent of the mineral and rare lands in the world, according to several estimates. But work has not yet begun to take advantage of many of the resources and many sites are in territory now controlled by the Russian forces.
In particular, Ukraine has about 20 percent of the world’s graphite, an essential material for electrical batteries, according to the Geological Research and Mining Office of France.
Ukraine is also an important manganese and titanium producer, and says he has the largest lithium deposits in Europe.
Russia controls about 20 percent of the territory of Ukraine after more than three years of brutal struggle that has killed tens of thousands, including civilians.
Ukraine launched a surprise raid last August in the Kursk region of Russia. Moscow claimed to have completely eliminated Ukrainian forces over the weekend.
Russia said Wednesday that 288 civilians died during Kursk’s incursion.
