The Trump administration sees its resource deal with Ukraine as a model for further international agreements, reflecting the president’s strategy of using Washington’s foreign policy heft to secure assets and investment returns overseas.
The deal signed on Wednesday grants the US privileged access to new projects that develop Ukraine’s natural resources, and was a key demand by President Donald Trump for continued assistance against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
A senior Treasury official, who briefed reporters Thursday on the condition they not be identified, said US officials see the Ukraine deal as a way for the American people to share in the economic growth of regions that the US would typically support through grants or loans.
The official described the deal, which covers resources including oil and gas, graphite and aluminum, as reflecting Trump’s intention to use foreign policy to add assets rather than liabilities to the US balance sheet.
Separately Thursday, Trump’s Africa envoy, Massad Boulos, said the US is pushing for a peace deal between Congo and Rwanda that would also involve separate bilateral minerals pacts with each, Reuters reported.
“This is very much in line with the Trump administration’s approach to diplomacy,” Torrey Taussig, a former Biden administration official who’s now director of the Transatlantic Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council, said of the Ukraine deal. “The Treasury Secretary said economic security is national security, and this definitely aligns with Trump’s proclivity toward deal-making above diplomacy.”
Major questions remain about the prospects for the pact with Ukraine, where many potential resource deposits need further study and investment to become commercially viable, while some are located near or behind the front lines.
Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who traveled to Washington to sign the deal, told reporters during a briefing that the two sides still need to finalize two technical agreements that define how the fund will operate, which she said could take a few months.
More broadly, negotiations are still needed over a peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia. Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, met President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last week but hasn’t been able to secure a lasting ceasefire, with Russia continuing air strikes on Ukrainian targets, including cities.
The minerals deal gives the US first claim on profits transferred into a special reconstruction fund to be jointly managed by both nations. Profits will be reinvested in Ukraine for the first ten years, Kyiv said. The fund is expected to also reimburse the US for future military assistance to Ukraine, and will be financed by 50% of the revenues from new project licenses.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement Wednesday that the Ukraine deal “signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”
The agreement doesn’t, however, include security guarantees that Kyiv and its European allies had pursued. It also doesn’t require the repayment of billions of dollars in US aid already delivered since the start of Russia’s invasion, something Trump had initial demanded.
“The agreement has changed significantly during the preparation process,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy wrote on social media Thursday. “It is now truly an equal partnership – one that creates opportunities for substantial investment in Ukraine, as well as significant modernization of Ukraine’s industries and, equally importantly, its legal practices.”
With assistance from Eric Martin and Kateryna Chursina.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
