Key Points
- The US and Ukraine have signed an economic agreement after months of sometimes fraught negotiations.
- The agreement will fund Ukraine's reconstruction while giving the US preferential access to Ukrainian minerals deals.
- Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's first deputy prime minister, said the deal would "attract global investment" in Ukraine.
Ukraine and the United States have signed an agreement that will give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine's post-war reconstruction.
The two countries signed the accord in Washington on Thursday (AEST) after months of sometimes fraught negotiations, with uncertainty persisting until the last moment with word of a late snag.
The accord establishes a joint investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction after a peace settlement is reached in Russia's three-year-old war with the country.
The agreement is central to Ukraine's efforts to mend ties with Trump and the White House, which frayed after he took office in January.
Ukrainian officials have hoped that the deal would ensure continued US support for Ukraine's defence against Russia.
US 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 the US to contribute to the fund both with direct financial contributions and other assistance, such as air defence systems. The US did not directly address that suggestion.
The US has been Ukraine's single largest military donor since Russia's 2022 invasion, with aid of more than $113 billion, according to the Kiel Institute in Germany.
Before the signing, Trump repeated on Wednesday that the US should get something for its aid, thus the effort to secure a deal for Ukraine's plentiful deposits of rare earth minerals.
Announcing the deal, the US treasury said the partnership recognised "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".
Svyrydenko said the accord allowed Ukraine to "determine what and where to extract" and that its subsoil remains owned by Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (right) was supposed to sign a minerals deal during a visit to the White House in February, which was aborted after a tense meeting with Donald Trump (left). Source: AAP / Joshua Sukoff/Medill News Service
Global rare-earth mining is currently dominated by China, which is locked in a trade war with the US after Trump's sharp tariff increases.
Ukraine also has large reserves of iron, uranium and natural gas.
Svyrydenko said Ukraine has no debt obligations to the United States under the agreement, a key point in the lengthy negotiations between the two countries.
She said the deal also complied with Ukraine's constitution and Ukraine's campaign to join the European Union, key elements in Ukraine's negotiating position.
The minerals deal and US peace efforts have been negotiated separately but reflect Washington's approach to Ukraine and Russia.
Trump has upended US policy by softening the US stance toward Russia and sometimes falsely blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the war.
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US 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.
"Importantly, the agreement sends a signal to global partners that long-term cooperation with Ukraine - over decades - is not only possible but reliable," Svyrydenko said on X.
A draft of the US-Ukraine agreement seen by Reuters showed Ukraine secured the removal of any requirement for it to pay back the US for past military assistance, something Kyiv had staunchly opposed.
The draft did not provide any concrete US security guarantees for Ukraine, one of its initial goals.
Separately, Ukraine has discussed with European allies the forming of an international force to help ensure Ukraine's security if a peace agreement is reached with Russia.
Trump says US presence will keep 'bad actors' out of Ukraine
Trump has resisted offering security guarantees to Ukraine and has rejected its aspiration to join NATO.
But Trump said a US presence on the ground would benefit Ukraine.
"The American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we're doing the digging," Trump said at the cabinet meeting.
