Ukraine and the United States signed on Wednesday a long-contested economic agreement promoted by U.S. President Donald Trump that will give Washington preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine's reconstruction.
The two countries signed the accord in Washington after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, with uncertainty persisting until the last moment, with word of an eleventh-hour snag.
The accord establishes a joint investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction as Trump tries to secure a peace settlement in Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine. Trump's administration called it a new form of U.S. commitment to Kyiv after the end of military aid.
The agreement is central to Kyiv's efforts to mend ties with Trump and the White House, which frayed after he took office in January.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko were shown signing the agreement in a photo posted on X by the Treasury, which said the deal "clearly signals the Trump Administration's commitment to a free, sovereign, prosperous Ukraine."
Svyrydenko wrote on X that the accord provides for Washington to contribute to the fund.
"In addition to direct financial contributions, it may also provide NEW assistance – for example, air defense systems for Ukraine," she said.
Washington has been Ukraine's single largest military donor since Russia's 2022 invasion, with aid of more than 64 billion euros ($72 billion), according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.
Before the signing, Trump repeated on Wednesday that the U.S. should get something for its aid to Kyiv, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine's plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals.
Trump had initially demanded rights to Ukraine's mineral wealth as compensation for the billions of dollars in U.S. weapons sent under former President Joe Biden after Russia invaded just over three years ago.
After initial hesitation, Ukraine has accepted a minerals accord as a way to secure long-term investment by the United States, as Trump tries to drastically scale back U.S. security commitments around the world.
In announcing the deal, the U.S. Treasury said the partnership recognized "the significant financial and material support that the people of the United States have provided to the defense of Ukraine since Russia's full-scale invasion."
The Treasury statement notably mentioned Russia's "full-scale invasion" of Ukraine – diverging from the Trump administration's usual formulation as a "conflict."
Announcing the signing of the deal in Washington, Bessent said it showed "both sides' commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine."
"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," Bessent said.
"And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine."
Separately on X, the U.S. Treasury secretary said he was glad to announce "the signing of today’s historic economic partnership agreement between the United States and Ukraine establishing the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund to help accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery."
"Economic security is national security," he said.
A draft of the agreement, seen by Reuters earlier on Wednesday, showed Ukraine secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the U.S. for past military assistance, something Kyiv had staunchly opposed.
Ukrainian officials hope that signing the deal will firm up American support for Kyiv in the war.
The draft, however, did not specify any concrete U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine, one of Kyiv's initial goals.
In Kyiv, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said on national television that the agreement was "good, equal and beneficial."
In a post on Telegram, Shmygal said that the two countries would establish a Reconstruction Investment Fund with each side having 50% voting rights.
"Ukraine retains full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources," he said.
Meeting a key concern for Kyiv, he said Ukraine would not be asked to pay back any "debt" for the billions of dollars in U.S. weapons and other support since Russia invaded in February 2022.
"The fund's profits will be reinvested exclusively in Ukraine," he said.
Svyrydenko said on Facebook that the deal would finance mineral and oil and gas projects as well as "related infrastructure or processing."
She also said the accord allowed Ukraine to "determine what and where to extract" and that its subsoil remains owned by Ukraine.
Trump had originally sought $500 billion in mineral wealth – around four times what the United States has contributed to Ukraine since the war.
Ukraine is said to hold some 5% of the world's mineral resources and rare earths, according to various estimates. But work has not yet started on tapping many of the resources and many sites are in territory now controlled by Russian forces.
Notably, Ukraine has around 20% of the world's graphite, an essential material for electric batteries, according to France's Bureau of Geological and Mining Research.
It is also a major producer of manganese and titanium, and says it possesses the largest lithium deposits in Europe.
The minerals deal and U.S. peace efforts have been negotiated separately but reflect Washington's approach to Ukraine and Russia.
Trump has upended U.S. policy by what is seen as a softening of the U.S. stance toward Russia and sometimes falsely blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war.
U.S. peace proposals have called for recognition of Russia's claim to Crimea, which it seized from Ukraine in 2014, and potentially four other Ukrainian regions. Zelenskyy has said Kyiv would never do so because it would contravene Ukraine's Constitution.
Russia controls about 20% of Ukraine's territory after more than three years of fighting that has killed tens of thousands, including civilians.
