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The White House said Wednesday night that it had signed an “economic partnership” with Ukraine that, after weeks of volatile negotiations, will give Washington access to some of the war-torn nation‘s critical minerals and natural resources.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the agreement, established as the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, will allow Washington to “invest alongside Ukraine” to unlock Kyiv’s lucrative assets, accelerate its economic recovery and provide the repayment that President Donald Trump has demanded for U.S. military aid.
“As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war. This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine,” Bessent said in a statement.
“President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine,” he added. “No state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economy minister said on X that “it is the Ukrainian state that determines what and where to extract” and that “subsoil remains under Ukrainian ownership.”
Ukraine and the United States will jointly manage and maintain co-ownership of the investment fund, with neither side holding a dominant vote, Svyrydenko said. It will be financed by new Ukrainian oil, gas and critical mineral licenses, with 50% of all revenue from the licenses going toward the fund.
“The fund will then invest in extraction projects for critical materials, oil, and gas — as well as in related infrastructure and processing. Specific investment projects will be selected jointly by Ukraine and the US. Importantly, the Fund may invest exclusively in Ukraine,” she said on X.
Svyrydenko suggested in her post that the United States will also contribute to the fund, though did not elaborate on how much, and added that contributions to the fund will not be taxed in either jurisdiction.
Russian former-President Dmitry Medvedev sought to spin the deal as a loss for Kyiv, saying in a post on Telegram that “Trump has finally broken the Kiev regime into paying for American aid with minerals.”
“Now they will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country,” the deputy chair of Russia’s security council added.
The quantity and value of Ukraine’s rare earth elements remain unclear, partly because up-to-date geological surveys need to be carried out. Experts say that maps for Ukraine are up to 30 years old and that, while President Trump has referred to Ukraine’s mineral wealth as being $500 billion, the value of the country’s rare-earth minerals is closer to $12 billion.
“Rare earth is called rare for a reason, and they have a lot,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting earlier Wednesday, “and we made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging.”
A few weeks ago, the chances of the Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy administrations signing such a deal looked slim. When the Ukrainian president visited Washington in February to discuss and possibly sign the agreement, longstanding personal tensions with Trump exploded into the open in an extraordinary public argument also involving Vice President J.D. Vance.
Trump suggested Wednesday that the pair’s relationship had improved since then, characterizing the meeting as “beautiful” and expressing confidence that Zelenskyy “wants to make a deal” to end the war.”
The president had an impromptu and friendlier meeting with Zelenskyy in Rome on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral last week.
Trump said Wednesday that the agreement would serve as an avenue for the U.S. to recoup funds it has provided to Ukraine throughout its war with Russia, a figure the State Department has placed at $66.5 billion in terms of military assistance.
Since beginning his second term just over 100 days ago, Trump has repeatedly insisted that the U.S. be repaid for at least part of the aid that Washington has sent to Ukraine to help it fight Russia’s three-year-long invasion.
It is unclear how much of the money will go toward repaying the U.S. Svyrydenko said in her post that the agreement “includes no provisions regarding any Ukrainian debt obligations to the United States.”
Despite accusations of treating Moscow more leniently than Kyiv in protracted peace talks with both parties, Trump’s ire was directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he criticized for carrying out widespread strikes on Kyiv despite U.S. officials’ ongoing effort to secure a plan to end the war.
While Putin on Monday announced a temporary ceasefire due to begin next week, there are few signs that he is planning a more long-term cessation in military activity.
Russian strikes on the Ukrainian port city of Odessa overnight Wednesday killed two people and injured 15 more, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said in a post Thursday on Telegram.
Meanwhile, Putin said at a public event Wednesday that a small number of Ukrainian troops are still holed up in Kursk, the only region of Russia partly occupied by Ukrainian troops, where both sides have recently said Kyiv has suffered losses.
Nnamdi Egwuonwu is a politics reporter at NBC News.
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U.S. and Ukraine sign long-awaited minerals deal to repay aid – NBC News
