Zelenskyy: Ukraine has received draft agreement on minerals from US

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that Washington has handed Kyiv the first draft of a partnership agreement that provides for investment in Ukraine's mineral resources in exchange for further aid.

Source: Zelenskyy in Kyiv after a meeting with Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury, on 12 February, as reported by European Pravda, citing Interfax-Ukraine news agency

Details: Zelenskyy noted that Ukraine had "received the first draft of the appropriate document on the partnership between our nations".

"We've received this document today; we... will do everything so that our teams can really quickly agree and sign this document," he added.

Zelenskyy emphasised the importance of reviewing all the document details before or during the Munich conference to ensure the agreement could be formalised at the appropriate levels.

For his part, Bessent told reporters that the document is part of additional guarantees from the US to Ukraine and serves as "an important signal to the Russian leadership that we stand together" in economic cooperation with Ukraine.

Background:

• Last week, US President Donald Trump said he was interested in concluding a deal with Ukraine to obtain rare earth metals and other resources in exchange for arms supplies.
• Later, he added that Kyiv had "essentially agreed" to conclude a deal worth US$500 billion.
• Ukraine has significant reserves of uranium and several critical minerals, particularly titanium, lithium and graphite. Ukrainian authorities estimate that they could be worth trillions of dollars.

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