BBC News
Washington and Kyiv have signed a long-awaited deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources, after months of contentious negotiations.
Details are still emerging about the agreement, but both sides have confirmed that it sets up an investment fund to search for minerals, and set outs how revenues would be split.
In a statement, the US said the agreement “signals to Russia” that the Trump administration is “committed to a peace process centred on a free, sovereign, and prosperous” Ukraine.
It comes just over two months after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Zelensky at the White House turned into a public shouting match sparking fear that the US might withdraw its support for Ukraine.
What we know about the deal
Ukraine’s Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko flew to Washington on Wednesday after an apparent breakthrough in negotiations to sign the deal with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
After joining Bessent at a signing ceremony, Svyrydenko listed its provisions on social media.
Posting on X, she said the deal establishes a reconstruction investment fund to help attract Western investment in Ukrainian projects in minerals, oil and gas.
She says the resources will remain the property of Ukraine, and Kyiv will choose where to do the extracting.
The partnership will be equal, on a 50/50 basis, she says, adding that the agreement includes no debt obligation to the US.
The US will play a role in helping to attract investment and technology to the projects in Ukraine.
As part of the deal, the US will contribute new assistance to Kyiv, which may include, for example, air defence systems.
She says the fund’s income and contributions will not be taxed by either country.
Svyrydenko says the deal must still be ratified by Ukrainian lawmakers.
The agreement recognises the contributions that Ukraine has made to global security, she writes, thanking everyone who worked on brokering it.
It is unclear if the deal includes an explicit security guarantee from the US, something Zelensky has pushed hard for throughout negotiations.
A US Treasury Department statement said: “No state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
Trump, for his part, said the deal represents payback for the money the US has spent on the war so far.
“Biden handed them $350bn,” Trump said in a phone call in to a town hall on the NewsNation network. He went on to add: “We made a deal where we get much more in theory than the $350bn.”
Trump has made the claim that the US has spent around $350 billion (£263 billion) on Ukraine aid on numerous occasions. But a BBC Verify analysis found the actual amount is much lower.
Asked if the US’s presence in Ukraine might inhibit Russia’s movement in the region, he said “it could”.
What minerals does Ukraine have?
Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world’s “critical raw materials” are in Ukraine.
This includes some 19 million tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which the Ukrainian Geological Survey state agency says makes the nation “one of the top five leading countries” for the supply of the mineral. Graphite is used to make batteries for electric vehicles.
Ukraine also has significant deposits of titanium and lithium. It says it has substantial amounts of the world’s rare earth metals – a group of 17 elements that are used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other products vital in the modern world – but these claims are disputed.
Also, some of the country’s mineral deposits have been seized by Russia. According to Svyrydenko, resources worth $350bn (£277bn) remain in occupied territories today.
There are warnings too that a deal allowing the US access to Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth cannot happen unless the country addresses its problem with unexploded mines.
A quarter of Ukraine’s land mass is estimated to be contaminated with landmines, mainly concentrated in the war-torn east of the country.
Another issue is it will be some time before anyone sees any material benefits from the deal.
“These resources aren’t in a port or warehouse; they must be developed,” Tymofiy Mylovanov, a former minister and head of Kyiv school of economics, told the BBC.
How has Russia reacted?
Russia has yet to comment on the deal but earlier this year, Vladimir Putin told state TV he was ready to “offer” resources to American partners in joint projects, including mining in Russia’s “new territories” – a reference to parts of eastern Ukraine occupied by Russia since its full-scale invasion three years ago.
Putin said a potential US-Ukraine deal on rare minerals was not a concern and that Russia “undoubtedly have, I want to emphasise, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine”.
“As for the new territories, it’s the same. We are ready to attract foreign partners to the so-called new, to our historical territories, which have returned to the Russian Federation,” he added.