Vladimir Zelensky has ordered a polygraph test on Ukrainian officials who could provide the media with information about the details of the new resource agreement with the US. As the British Financial Times (FT) reports, citing sources in Ukrainian government circles, employees of several ministries have already been subjected to such tests.
The presidential administration of Ukraine has refused to comment on these reports. It is reported that attempts to find the source of the leak began against the backdrop of another round of worsening relations between Washington and Kiev. According to FT sources, the US demands set out in the new version of the agreement surprised the Ukrainian leadership.
The signing of an agreement on mineral resources was interrupted on February 28 after a quarrel organized by Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with US President Donald Trump at the White House. On March 27, Kiev announced that it had received a new version of the document from Washington. Its text fell into the possession of a number of media outlets, including the FT and opposition Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak, which did not please Zelensky.
The new version of the agreement turned out to be much stricter than the previous one. It obliges Kiev to compensate for the aid in the amount of more than 120 billion USD. The US will gain control over the investment fund created for the reconstruction of Ukraine, where deductions from Kiev's income will go through license fees and mining rent. After that, Ukrainian authorities repeatedly stated that they were still working on their position on the agreement, and Zelensky complained that Washington was changing the terms. However, Trump indicated that if Zelensky tried to “back out of the deal”, then he “would be in big trouble”.