The Trump administration may try to push through a simplified initial version of the US-Ukraine deal on natural resources extraction, with details to be sorted out at a later date, Reuters reported on Feruary 20, citing two undisclosed sources.
The news comes after US President Donald Trump said that he aims to “resurrect” talks on the agreement, adding that otherwise, “things are gonna not make him (President Volodymyr Zelensky) too happy.”
The Trump administration reportedly seeks a 50% interest in all of Ukraine’s natural resources, including critical minerals, oil, and gas, as well as stakes in port and other critical infrastructure, through a joint investment fund.
In early February, Trump said he wanted to strike a deal with Ukraine involving access to rare earth minerals in exchange for continued aid. Trump later claimed that Kyiv had “essentially agreed” to a $500 billion resource deal.
The revised approach is one of the several directions being discussed in the White House on how to strike a deal with Kyiv in the coming weeks, reported the news agency.
Postponing discussion on the agreement’s details should help Washington bypass numerous legal and logistical obstacles and give the US time to consider issues like revenue sharing at a later stage, Reuters wrote.
Sources told Reuters that Trump wants to make a deal before potentially authorizing more US military aid for Kyiv or moving forward with an attempt to broker formal Ukraine-Russia peace talks.
Trump considers it important to publicly announce to domestic audiences that the US is getting back the money allocated for assistance, the sources claimed.
An undisclosed Trump adviser confirmed for Reuters that the US would continue to pursue the agreement, adding that “we need to get this guy (Zelensky) back to reality.” Other sources told the news agency that Ukraine is open to concluding the deal but hopes it will be less “rapacious” than the original draft.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent passed Zelensky a draft of the Ukraine-US natural resources agreement during his visit to Kyiv last week. Ukraine’s leader said Kyiv is not ready to sign the document as it did not include any security guarantees.
A Ukrainian official source told the Kyiv Independent that the US initially wanted to make Ukraine’s signing of the memorandum a condition for Zelensky’s meeting with Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference on February 14.
After Ukrainian delegates pushed back, the meeting eventually took place, during which both sides discussed their proposals. The source described the talks as constructive.
Trump blamed Ukraine for treating Bessent “rather rudely” when he arrived in Kyiv to pen the memorandum.
The comments follow Trump’s increasingly hostile rhetoric toward Ukraine. Only a day before dubbing Zelensky “a dictator without elections,” he accused Ukraine of starting the war while praising the US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia.
Source: The Kyiv Independent
Image: President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump gather for a meeting in New York City, US, on Sept. 27, 2024. (Alex Kent/Getty Images)
