Ukraine to start work on finalising minerals deal with US on Monday

The speaker of the Ukrainian parliament has said the government will start working in earnest from Monday to reach an agreement with the Trump administration for US access to mineral resources.

Speaking to Japanese broadcaster NHK World, Ruslan Stefanchuk said a special team would start working on the proposal beginning next week but that any agreement must include security assurances from Washington.

American access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals was first presented to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent earlier in February.

Washington is asking for a 50% cut of all revenues generated from Ukraine’s mineral and natural resources in what US officials are calling payment for previous military support.

On Friday, President Donald Trump said that Washington and Kyiv were close to reaching a deal.

“I think we’re pretty close, yeah. I think they want it. They feel good about it. And it’s a significant, it’s a big deal, but they want it and it keeps us in that country and they’re very happy about it,” he said.

But those comments stood in stark contrast to Zelenskyy’s previous remarks on Wednesday when he said “I can’t sell Ukraine” and refused to sign the deal.

Washington’s demand for around $500 billion (€477 billion) in mineral wealth from Ukraine was rejected by Zelenskyy on the grounds that the US had provided nowhere near that sum in military or financial aid and hadn’t offered any specific security guarantees.

Since 2022, the US has provided Ukraine with around $67 (€64 billion) billion worth of weaponry.

“But it’s we get our money back. This should have been signed long before we went in. It should have been signed by Biden. But Biden didn’t know too much about what he was doing,” Trump told reporters on Friday.

On Saturday, business news network Bloomberg reported that both sides needed more time to reach a deal while Sky News said an agreement “is not yet ready to be signed” due to a number of “problematic issues.”

Sky, quoting an anonymous Ukrainian source, said Zelenskyy is not ready to accept the current form of the draft.

Access to Starlink

As Washington presses Kyiv to agree to a deal, US negotiators reportedly raised the possibility of shutting Ukraine out of the Starlink satellite system.

Starlink provides crucial internet access to Ukraine and is heavily used by the military to coordinate drone attacks, exchange videos from the field and enable commanders to stay in contact with troops.

Continued access to SpaceX-run Starlink was also raised in talks on Thursday between Zelenskyy and Trump’s Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg.

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US’ threats to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink was reported by the news agency Reuters on Friday, citing three anonymous sources.

But after that story was published, Elon Musk, whose SpaceX company operates Starlink, posted on X that the story was “false” and accused the news agency of lying.

What are rare earth minerals?

Rare earth elements are a set of 17 elements that are essential to many kinds of consumer technology, including mobile phones, hard drives and electric and hybrid vehicles.

Ukraine’s rare earth elements are largely untapped because of the war and because of state policies regulating the mineral industry.

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The country also lacks good information to guide the development of rare earth mining.

Geological data is thin because mineral reserves are scattered across Ukraine, and existing studies are considered largely inadequate and the industry’s true potential is clouded by insufficient research.

But the outlook for Ukrainian natural resources is promising.

The country’s reserves of titanium, a key component for the aerospace, medical and automotive industries, are believed to be among Europe’s largest.

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Ukraine also holds some of Europe’s largest known reserves of lithium, which is required to produce batteries, ceramics and glass.

In 2021, the Ukrainian mineral industry accounted for 6.1% of the country’s gross domestic product and 30% of exports.

An estimated 40% of Ukraine’s metallic mineral resources are inaccessible because of Russian occupation, according to data from We Build Ukraine, a Kyiv-based think tank.

The European Commission identified Ukraine as a potential supplier for more than 20 critical raw materials and said that if the country joins the EU, it could strengthen the European economy.

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