Zelenski, dissatisfied with the agreement for mineral resources

Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski said on Friday that the new US Agreement project for the exploitation of Ukrainian mineral resources is ‘completely different’ from the previous version and requires an in -depth assessment from Kiev jurists before a document signing.

Speaking in front of the press in Kiev, Zelenski also emphasized that he would not accept such an agreement if he threatened Ukraine’s accession to the EU. The project received from Washington comprises « many things that have not been discussed previously and some have been rejected, » noted the Ukrainian president.

He stressed that Ukraine will not recognize as loans the aid received from the US since the war with Russia began, mentioning this in the context in which the new US project to exploit Ukrainian resources seems to follow Washington’s recovery of these aids offered by Ukraine as donations to former US administration.

Zelenski himself launched the idea of ​​partial transfer of Ukraine’s mineral resources to its Western allies in October last year, when it sketched a so-called ‘victory plan’ in the war with Russia. From the perspective of Kiev, a key condition to give in to its allies in its mineral resources, especially rare metals (rare lands) is to obtain security guarantees to discourage Russia to ever attack Ukraine after a possible cessation of hostilities.

The new US President Donald Trump has been very interested in seizing these resources, invoking his wish for the US to get a form of compensation for the help offered to Ukraine in the War with Russia.

After negotiations sprinkled and misunderstandings, determined especially by Trump’s refusal to provide Ukraine Security guarantees in exchange for US preferential access to Ukrainian mineral resources, Washington and Kiev have agreed by which the US will obtain this access and a common American-Ukrainian fund will be created in which the Ukrainian mineral exploit will be created. from which post-war reconstruction works would be financed.

The agreement had to be signed during the visit by Zelenski to Washington on February 28, but the signing was postponed after his meeting with Trump at the White House turned into a public quarrel between the two leaders.

Meanwhile, the relationships between them seem to have been remedied, and Washington has sent Kiev a new agreement for the exploitation of Ukraine’s mineral resources. But, according to the draft consulted by Reuters, it would assume that Ukraine would send Washington all the profit made by a fund that controls Ukrainian resources until Kiev will return all the American received during the war with Russia, plus an interest.

Although the details of the new version of the agreement were not publicly presented, the parliamentarians and the Ukraine press described it as ‘unacceptable’. According to the newspaper Ukrainska Pravda, ‘Donald Trump’s team gave up all the compromise solutions agreed a month ago’, and the new document ‘passes almost all the red lines’ of Ukraine,’ deprived of some of his sovereignty ‘and forcing it to repay all the American received’.

Moreover, the new project of Agreement proposed by Washington does not include any security guarantee for Ukraine, as well as the previous version.

The Ukrainian resources covered by Donald Trump are largely in deposits for which no operating works have been initiated, are difficult to extracted, require major investments or are de facto under Russian control in Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia.

On his side, Russian President Vladimir Putin was declared favorably to American investments for the exploitation of these resources in the Ukraine territories reached the control of Russian forces.