U.S. and Ukraine Announce a Deal

The Washington Post reports U.S. and Ukraine Announce Signing of Contentious Minerals Deal.

The United States and Ukraine have signed a deal to establish joint investment in Ukraine's mineral wealth, oil, gas and other natural resources, officials said Wednesday, in a move that would fulfill a key White House request and give Kyiv a degree of much-desired U.S. backing.

"As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. "This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term."

The deal will establish the "United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund" which will allow the "two countries to work collaboratively and invest together to ensure that our mutual assets, talents, and capabilities can accelerate Ukraine's economic recovery," Bessent said in a statement.

The latest version of the deal, reviewed by The Washington Post, falls short of providing any concrete security guarantees to Ukraine, but it states that Kyiv and Washington agree it affirms a "long-term strategic alignment" between the two countries and U.S. "support for Ukraine's security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks."

That language alone marks a win for Kyiv, which has been seeking any show of support from the U.S. since the relationship between the two countries turned rocky under President Donald Trump. Ukraine will seek significantly more tangible security guarantees under any future peace deal.

This agreement makes no mention of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest such facility in Europe, which Russia violently seized in early 2022 and now occupies. U.S. officials have proposed taking control of the plant as part of a future deal to end the war.

The latest draft of the deal adjusts several key points that Ukraine had objected to in past versions. Kyiv had, for example, raised concerns over language in a different draft that it feared could have put it in violation of European Union laws by offering advantages to American investors.

Ukraine is urgently attempting to join the bloc of nations and must ensure that its laws conform to it. The text includes a provision that protects Ukraine from any binding agreement that may hamper its goal of E.U. accession. It also allows for the possibility of future good-faith negotiations to rewrite parts of the deal if Ukraine legally must do so.

The draft also nixes old language that would have set Ukraine up to reimburse Washington for past U.S. military aid.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Wednesday that the two sides were finalizing "technical details" regarding the deal, which he described as a "milestone" for Ukraine.