Minerals for peace? Trump strong-arms Ukraine into controversial deal

Donald Trump has strong-armed Ukraine into signing a controversial deal giving America access to its rare earth minerals while dangling the prospect of peace.

The US president – who famously vowed to end the war with Russia in ’24 hours’ – is being accused of using Volodymyr Zelensky’s desperation as a leverage.

After weeks of contentious debate, US treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian deputy prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced they had signed the deal in Washington on Wednesday.

While the exact details of the agreement remain murky, Ukraine was given little room to negotiate, it is understood.

The Trump administration made it clear that future US support – including a path to ceasefire negotiations with the Kremlin – depends on it.

Access to Ukrainian resources worth billions

There is a lot of detail about a US-Ukraine investment fund – but not about the valuable resources that America is going to have access to.

The two countries will establish a joint Reconstruction Investment Fund, with each side having equal voting rights.

Profits will be invested exclusively in Ukraine, which will not be asked to pay back any ‘debt’ for billions of dollars in US support since Russia’s February 2022 invasion.

Ukraine will have ‘full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources,’ prime Mminister Denys Shmygal said.

The US has been seeking access to more than 20 raw materials deemed strategically critical to its interests, including some non-minerals such as oil and natural gas.

They are also worth billions.

Among them are Ukraine’s deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing, and uranium, which is used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons.

The country also has lithium, graphite and manganese, which are used in electric vehicle batteries.

Vatican meeting was a ‘turning point’

A meeting between Zelensky and Trump in the Vatican, before the start of Pope Francis’ funeral, was a turning point for the deal, said William Taylor, former US ambassador.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that after speaking directly to Zelensky, the US president began to doubt that Putin is a reliable partner.

As a result, for Trump, this deal, which ‘started out as pretty lopsided’, has now become a ‘balanced mutually beneficial agreement’, according to Taylor.

While there is no explicit military security guarantee, he said the provision for long-term investment in Ukraine is ‘an indication of seriousness’ from the Americans.

Partnership with a question mark

‘As the president has said, the US is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war,’ stated Bessent.

‘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.’

The deal recognizes that the US has provided ‘significant financial and material support’ to help Ukraine defend itself since Russian launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to the US.

It is meant to position both countries to work collaboratively to ‘accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery’.

Bessent credited Trump with envisioning ‘this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine’.

‘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,’ he stated.

Svyrydenko announced on X that she signed the agreement on behalf of Ukraine’s government.

‘Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment into our country,’ she wrote.

The deal had been on the table since Zelensky visited the White House in late February with the US anticipating he would sign the agreement.

But Zelensky’s Oval Office meeting with Trump quickly descended into a shouting match, with the Ukrainian leader being asked to leave without singing the deal.

Trump and Zelensky last spoke in person as they attended the funeral of Pope Francis in the Vatican on Saturday.

In the hours before the deal was signed on Wednesday, sources told CNN that the two sides encountered last-minute disagreements.

Neither president immediately remarked on the signed deal on social media platforms.

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