Advisor to the head of the cabinet of Volodymyr Zelensky Mykhailo Podoliak said that Ukraine and the US continue to finalize the agreement on mineral resources, but did not confirm the information of the Axios edition that Kiev has already received a new version of the contract from Washington.
“Work on the agreement continues, it has not disappeared anywhere, but we need to give it the appropriate time so that it can be finalized“, he said on the Ukrainian telethon.
When asked whether Ukraine has received a new version of the contract from the US (as reported by Axios), Podoliak avoided answering the question. "It's not a simple job that can be done in one or two days," he added.
On February 12, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant handed over the text of the minerals agreement to Volodymyr Zelensky in Kiev. Zelensky did not sign it either during his meeting with Bessant or later in Munich during his meeting with US Vice President J. D. Vance. Instead, the Ukrainian delegation submitted the text with its own amendments, which the Americans in Munich did not take into account. Zelensky's refusal to sign the agreement led to a deterioration in US-Ukrainian relations.
According to information from American and Ukrainian media, the agreement provides for the transfer of rights to half of the revenues from the extraction of Ukrainian minerals to the United States, and this applies not only to rare earth metals, but also to titanium, uranium, gas and oil. The issuance of mining rights will be carried out by a special investment fund, which is also supposed to finance the reconstruction of Ukraine. The United States will also have the right to control the financial activities of this fund. Some of Ukraine's ports and infrastructure, as well as some industrial sectors, may also come under the control of American companies through the investment fund. The initial version of the treaty does not include any obligations of the United States to guarantee the security of Ukraine.