After months of tense negotiations – including one particularly fiery meeting in the White House Oval Office between United States President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February – Washington and Kyiv have finalised a long-awaited minerals deal.
The agreement, signed in Washington, DC, on Wednesday, will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals and natural resources licences. In return, the US will provide financial and military assistance to Ukraine to help the country rebuild after the war.
What’s in the minerals deal?
Few details have been released about the precise terms of the deal, which was signed by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukraine’s Vice Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko on Wednesday.
In a statement after the signing, Bessent said the “historic” economic partnership would send a clear signal to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process that ends what he called a “cruel and senseless war”.
Under the deal, the United States-Ukraine Reinvestment Fund will be established. This fund will be jointly managed by Ukraine and the US on an equal partnership basis.
Ukraine will maintain full ownership and control of the country’s resources and will determine what and where minerals may be extracted.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy said the US will contribute to the fund directly or through “new military assistance”, and Kyiv will contribute 50 percent of revenues from the exploitation of natural resources via new licences in the fields of critical materials, oil and gas. Svyrydenko suggested in a post on X that this could include air defence systems for Ukraine.
What minerals does Ukraine have?
According to data from Ukraine’s Economy Ministry, the country holds deposits of 22 of the 34 minerals classified as critical by the EU. Its critical minerals include precious and non-ferrous metals, ferroalloys and minerals such as titanium, zirconium, graphite and lithium.
Ukraine also holds reserves of rare earth elements (REEs), a group of 17 metallic minerals including lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, essential for high-tech applications in electronics, defence, aerospace and renewable energy.
According to the United Nations’ Russian-language news service, Ukraine’s critical mineral reserves made up approximately 5 percent of the global supply as of 2022.
Ukraine also accounts for 7 percent of the global production of titanium.
Its lithium reserves are largely untapped and considered one of Europe’s largest, at an estimated 500,000 tonnes.