Zelenskyy declined US proposal that Ukraine hand over 50% of mineral resources – NBC News

The administration of US President Donald Trump has proposed that Ukraine give the United States 50% ownership of the country's rare earth minerals. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to sign the agreement.

Source: NBC News citing US officials, as reported by European Pravda

Details: According to NBC’s sources, the Trump administration suggested that Ukraine give the United States 50% ownership of the country's rare earth minerals. The US also made it clear that it would be ready to deploy US troops to protect the minerals if an agreement was reached with Russia to end the war.

Two of the sources said that instead of paying for the minerals, the ownership agreement would allow Ukraine to reimburse the United States for the billions of dollars in weapons and support it has provided to Kyiv since the full-scale war began in February 2022.

Eight US officials said that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented Zelenskyy with a proposal for US ownership of half of Ukraine's rare earth minerals in a draft agreement he brought to their meeting on 13 February.

Bessent said after the meeting that the draft Ukraine-US rare earths agreement reflected President Trump's goal, but he did not provide details of what the administration had proposed.

The sources noted that Zelenskyy refused to sign the document when Bessent presented it during the meeting, saying he needed to study it and consult others.

Zelenskyy said at the time that he and his team would "do everything to review all the details of the document" before arriving in Munich, where he met with Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US lawmakers on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, 14 February.

During his speech on Friday at the security conference, Zelenskyy said that lawyers would review and advise on the document Bessent presented to him in Kyiv and suggest some amendments. He referred to the proposal as a memorandum between the US and Ukraine, not a security agreement.

Many of Ukraine's mineral resources are located in areas now controlled by Russian forces, three US officials noted.

Background:

• Bessent arrived in Kyiv on 13 February to discuss economic partnership with Ukraine.
• At the time, Zelenskyy said that the US had presented Kyiv with the first draft of a "partnership agreement" that would provide for investment in Ukraine's mineral resources in exchange for further assistance.
• Vance and Zelenskyy had been due to meet earlier on 14 February, but according to the Office of the President of Ukraine, they agreed to hold the meeting at a later date to give the US the opportunity to work on the draft partnership memorandum that Ukraine had finalised and handed over to the Americans. 
• A European Pravda source said that this happened because Zelenskyy and his American counterpart Donald Trump agreed on Wednesday, 12 February that Ukraine would finalise the draft partnership memorandum and hand it over to the Americans.

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