Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy says he directed his ministers not to sign off on a proposed agreement to give the United States access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals because the document was too focused on US interests.
The proposal, which was at the centre of Mr Zelenskiy’s talks with US vice-president JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, did not offer any specific security guarantees in return, according to one current and one former senior official familiar with the talks.
Mr Zelenskiy’s decision to reject a deal, at least for now, was described as “short-sighted” by a senior White House official.
“I didn’t let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because in my view it is not ready to protect us, our interest,” Mr Zelenskiy told the Associated Press (AP) on Saturday in Munich.
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The proposal focused on how the US could use Kyiv’s rare earth minerals “as compensation” for support already given to Ukraine by the Biden administration and as payment for future aid, current and former senior Ukrainian officials said, speaking anonymously.
Ukraine has vast reserves of critical minerals which are used in aerospace, defence and nuclear industries. The Trump administration has indicated it is interested in accessing them to reduce dependence on China, but Mr Zelenskiy said any exploitation would need to be tied to security guarantees for Ukraine that would deter future Russian aggression.
“For me is very important the connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment,” the Ukrainian president said.
Mr Zelenskiy did not go into details about why he instructed his officials not to sign the document, which was given to Ukrainian officials on Wednesday by US treasury secretary Scott Bessent on a visit to Kyiv.
“It’s a colonial agreement and Zelenskiy cannot sign it,” a former senior official said.
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White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes did not explicitly confirm the offer, but said in a statement: “President Zelenskiy is being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump Administration has presented to Ukraine.”
The Trump administration has grown weary of sending additional US aid to Ukraine and Mr Hughes said a minerals deal would allow American taxpayers to “recoup” money sent to Kyiv while growing Ukraine’s economy.
Mr Hughes added that the White House believes “binding economic ties with the United States will be the best guarantee against future aggression and an integral part of lasting peace”.
“The US recognises this, the Russians recognise this, and the Ukrainians must recognise this,” he said.
US officials in discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in Munich were commercially minded and largely concentrated on the specifics of exploring the minerals and how to form a possible partnership to do that with Ukraine, the senior official said.
The potential value of the deposits in Ukraine has not yet been discussed, with much unexplored or close to the front line.
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The US proposal apparently did not take into account how the deposits would be secured in the event of continuing Russian aggression. The official suggested the US did not have “ready answers” to that question and that one of their takeaways from discussions in Munich will be how to secure any mineral extraction operation in Ukraine involving people and infrastructure.
Any deal must be in accordance with Ukrainian law and acceptable to the Ukrainian people, the senior Ukrainian official said.
“Subsoil belongs to Ukrainians under the Constitution,” Kseniiia Orynchak, founder of the National Association of Mining Industry of Ukraine, previously told the AP, suggesting a deal would need popular support.
Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Vance did not discuss the details of the US document during their meeting on Friday at the Munich Security Conference, the senior official said.
That meeting was “very good” and “substantive”, with Mr Vance making it clear his and Mr Trump’s main goal was to achieve a durable, lasting peace, he said.
Mr Zelenskiy told Mr Vance that real peace requires Ukraine to be in a “strong position” when starting negotiations, stressed that the US negotiators should come to Ukraine, and that the US, Ukraine and Europe must be at the negotiating table for talks with Russia.
But general Keith Kellogg, Mr Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, all but cut Europeans out of any Ukraine-Russia talks, despite Mr Zelenskiy’s request.
“You can have the Ukrainians, the Russians, and clearly the Americans at the table talking,” Mr Kellogg said at an event hosted by a Ukrainian tycoon at the Munich Security Conference.
Pressed on whether that meant Europeans would be included, he said: “I’m a school of realism. I think that’s not going to happen.”
Ukraine is now preparing a “counter proposal” which will be delivered to the US in “the near future”, the official said.
“I think it’s important that the vice-president understood me that if we want to sign something, we have to understand that it will work,” Mr Zelenskiy told AP.
That means, he said: “It will bring money and security.”
