Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he would not accept any mineral deal that threatened its integration with the European Union, but said it was too early to judge the text of the deal that Washington unilaterally expanded. The Ukrainian leader told reporters he was not in a position to comment on the U.S. proposal until lawyers in Kiev had reviewed the draft, which would require revenue from the exploitation of Ukraine's natural resources to be handed over to the United States for years. He also said Ukraine would not accept past American help as a loan, although he did not say whether such a demand was in the latest draft sent to senior officials. Zelensky said the document was "completely different" from an earlier framework agreement he had planned to sign before negotiations with Trump ended in acrimony last month. "I don't want another round of squabbling," Zelensky told a news conference in Kiev. "I really want us to get a concrete review by the highest level of lawyers." The agreement, seen by Reuters, shows the United States demanding that Ukraine pay the United States the profits, including interest, of a fund that controls the development of Ukraine's resources before reimbursing all U.S. wartime aid. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told lawmakers that Kiev would speak out on the New Deal only after a consensus had been reached. Until then, any public discussion is inappropriate, she said. Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior official in Zelensky's office, told Reuters there was no final draft yet. "Ministries are still in consultation," he said, without elaborating further. Another Ukrainian source said the full text submitted by the Americans was "very mixed." The Trump administration has recalibrated Washington's policy to support Russia's narrative of its three-year war in Ukraine. He has been pressing Kiev for weeks to sign an agreement that would involve the United States in the development of Ukraine's resources. Zelenskiy has repeatedly said he accepts the offer, although he will not sign a deal that impoverishes the country. On the 27th, he claimed that the United States had been changing the terms, but he did not want the United States to think that he was opposed to the agreement in principle. According to three people familiar with the ongoing negotiations, the United States has revised its proposal, and the latest draft does not give Ukraine a security guarantee. Instead, it requires that the proceeds from the development of natural resources by Ukrainian state and private companies be managed by a joint investment fund. The draft gives the United States the right to buy exploited natural resources until Ukraine can use the profits from the fund and recoup all the money given to Ukraine since 2022, plus an annual interest rate of 4 percent. Ukraine's 2024 budget revenue includes $1.2 billion in taxes and fees from underground resource extraction, $1.8 billion in dividends and other payments from state shares in state-owned enterprises, and $19.4 billion in profits from state-owned enterprises, according to Finance Ministry data. The joint venture fund will be managed by the US International Development Finance Corporation (IDFC) and will have five directors, three of whom will be appointed by the US and two by Ukraine. The funds will be converted into foreign currency and remitted abroad.
