Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that negotiations with the United States over a minerals agreement are progressing well, raising hopes that a long-delayed deal may soon be finalised and deliver economic benefits to both nations.
Speaking during his daily video address on Wednesday, Zelensky noted that “the basic legal stuff is almost finalised”, adding that if talks continue constructively, the resulting agreement would yield “economic results for both our countries”.
The proposed deal, which would allow the United States to benefit financially from Ukraine’s mining of critical minerals, had initially been on track for signing until a political clash between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in February temporarily stalled negotiations.
Trump has pushed for the agreement to include royalty payments to the United States from profits generated by Ukraine’s mining sector, framing it as a form of compensation for military and financial support previously provided to Kyiv by former president Joe Biden’s administration.
Despite this rocky backdrop, Zelensky said the Ukrainian negotiation team had been making headway. Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko also confirmed “significant progress” had been achieved, stating that several items in the draft agreement had been revised, and that both sides were close to signing a “memorandum of intent”.
Any final agreement will be subject to a vote in Ukraine’s parliament, Svyrydenko added.
A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the negotiations told AFP that talks were “moving quite fast” and that newer versions of the draft did not frame previous US aid as debt to be repaid by Ukraine — a point that had proved contentious in earlier rounds of discussion.
That development echoed a Bloomberg News report earlier this week, which indicated that Washington had softened its position on reimbursement for past assistance provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in 2022.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Monday that a deal could be signed as early as this week, raising expectations for a breakthrough in economic cooperation between the two allies.
