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The US and Ukraine hit last-minute hurdles on Wednesday as they were on the verge of signing a framework deal on exploiting Ukraine’s minerals.
The agreement they had been due to sign after marathon negotiations, which was seen by the Financial Times, said the US and Ukraine — through developing Kyiv’s natural resources and creating a joint investment fund — would “seek to create the conditions necessary to . . . increase investment in mining, energy and related technology in Ukraine”.
Ukraine’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to sign the deal with US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent, said three Ukrainian officials, after negotiators repeatedly worked late into the night to agree terms.
But problems arose as Svyrydenko’s plane headed to the US, and Bessent’s team told her she should “be ready to sign all agreements, or go back home”, said three people familiar with the matter.
The Americans want the Ukrainians to sign the framework deal, a second detailed fund agreement that would complete the full minerals deal and a third technical document all together on Wednesday, said three people briefed on the situation.
A person familiar with the US’s thinking said on Wednesday that Ukraine had sought to revisit terms agreed at the weekend, and that Svyrydenko had been told not to fly to the US until the agreements were finalised.
The person said sticking points related to governance, a transparency mechanism and traceability of funds. But the deal could still be signed as early as Wednesday if Ukraine returned to the original terms, they said.
“President Trump has said that the time to get this done is now, and we are moving with all deliberate speed towards this end,” said a US Treasury spokesperson.
The Ukrainians said the US account was inaccurate, and that they could not sign all the documents on Wednesday because the fund agreement must be ratified by their country’s parliament.
One Ukrainian official said they worried the US “won’t be happy with anything”. “We stand ready to sign the framework deal today,” they said, but added that the chances were little better than “50-50”.
Amid the jockeying on Wednesday, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said: “As soon as all the final details are worked out, which I hope will happen within the next 24 hours, the agreement will be signed and we will take the first step.”
The framework deal does not explicitly offer US security guarantees, which Ukraine had sought, but it does call the agreement “an expression of a broader, long-term strategic alignment . . . and a tangible demonstration of the United States of America’s support for Ukraine’s security, prosperity, reconstruction and integration into global economic frameworks”.
The latest version of the minerals agreement was reached after Kyiv secured a significant concession from the Trump administration that only future military aid would count as the US contribution to the deal.
The development would mark a major step forward in the rocky relationship between Washington and Kyiv after a signing ceremony for an earlier version of the deal was cancelled in February following a public argument in the Oval Office between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
After that clash, Trump insisted that billions of dollars in past US military assistance be treated as loans to be repaid through the agreement, a proposal Zelenskyy rejected. Trump’s team of negotiators sent a new proposal stating that only past military aid to Kyiv would count as the US contribution to the deal.
On Sunday, Shmyhal said this line had been removed after Ukraine had clearly defined its “red lines”. He spoke from Washington following an “important meeting” with Bessent to hammer out the final details.
In the weeks since the Oval Office meeting that derailed talks — and after Kyiv worked with a US law firm to aid in negotiations — the talks became more “constructive”, said the Ukrainian officials.
Kyiv and Washington signed a memorandum of intent earlier this month, pledging to advance an agreement on the investment fund part of the deal covering Ukraine’s natural resources and energy assets.
The deal specifies that after it takes effect, any new US military assistance “including the donation of weapons systems, ammunition, technology or training” will be considered a capital contribution by the US.
Trump has expressed growing impatience over stalled ceasefire talks, and has expressed doubts about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s willingness to engage seriously on a peace framework he had hoped to broker within his first 100 days in office.
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