Egypt Daily News – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed on Friday that the draft of the new rare earth minerals deal proposed by the United States is “completely different” from the previous framework, noting that it will require additional legal assessment. He added in statements to reporters in Kyiv that Ukraine would not accept an agreement that threatens its integration with the European Union.
This comes after a new draft of an economic agreement concerning “Ukrainian minerals” revealed that Kyiv is being asked to make greater concessions.
The draft showed that Washington has requested broader concessions from Kyiv regarding future profits from a range of economic projects, as compensation for the financial and military aid it has provided to Ukrainian forces since the war with Russia began in 2022, according to a Ukrainian deputy and another source familiar with the document.
Ukraine has valued this aid at $100 billion, while Trump has repeatedly claimed it amounts to $350 billion.
Oil and gas resources
The United States has not only demanded profits from some Ukrainian mineral projects but also from oil and gas resources, both state-owned and private.
Trump demanded half of Ukraine’s oil, gas, and hydrocarbon resources, as well as nearly all of its minerals and most of its infrastructure.
Energy law expert Alan Riley, from the Atlantic Council, considered the deal to be akin to a document of expropriation, without guarantees or defense clauses. He also noted that the United States has not offered anything in return for these resources, according to the British newspaper Telegraph.
The new version of the “mineral deal,” which had been tentatively agreed upon by both countries earlier before the dispute between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump on February 28, is much broader in scope.
Trump and Zelensky were supposed to sign the previous version of the Ukrainian mineral wealth investment deal at the end of February, but the heated exchange between them, witnessed by the media, postponed it.
