Ukraine has rejected US President Donald Trump's offer of rare earth elements because Washington has not offered any guarantees regarding future military and financial assistance, Bloomberg reported.
Ukrainian authorities have opposed the US request to create a joint fund of $500 billion, which was envisaged as part of the agreement to transfer part of Ukraine's mineral resources to Washington, the agency revealed, citing an unnamed Ukrainian official familiar with the negotiations.
The special fund was supposed to compensate the US for the assistance provided by the US authorities to Ukraine since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russian troops. Ukraine claims that the actual amount is five times less and amounts to approximately $90 billion.
The source in Kiev indicated that the stumbling block in the negotiations is that the United States has not offered any guarantees regarding future military and financial assistance.
Ukraine has submitted new proposals for an agreement on mineral resources to the special envoy of the US President, Keith Kellogg. “Previously, the US proposed to set the size of this fund at $500 billion, but now we have reduced this proposal to $100 billion”, a source in Kiev announced, Radio NV reported.
US President Donald Trump said yesterday that his country is close to concluding a deal with Ukraine for its minerals, world agencies reported. Under the deal, revenues from Ukrainian minerals will be shared with the United States.
The US president said the US wants to return billions of dollars given to Ukraine in military aid. Trump said the US wants rare earths, oil and "everything we can get" from Ukraine.