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Ukraine will send a delegation to Washington "this week" to hold talks on a deal on strategic minerals, to which the United States wants privileged access in exchange for aid given to Kiev after the invasion by Russian forces, the Ukrainian government said today.
The Ukrainian team tasked with "advancing negotiations" on this "strategic" agreement will include representatives of the "Ministry of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Finance," Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Sviridenko explained in a post on social media X.
The Ukrainian-American "dialogue" on Ukraine's rare earths reflects "our shared commitment to building a solid and transparent partnership," Sviridenko assured, while the new version of this document has been described by many Ukrainian media and parliamentarians as highly unfavorable to Kiev.
Ukraine received a new version of this text at the end of March, while the signing of the first framework agreement in this regard failed in February, after a spectacular verbal confrontation between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and American Donald Trump at the White House.
On March 30, Trump warned Zelensky that he would be in "serious trouble" if he rejected this text.
The US president claims this agreement as compensation for the military and economic aid provided to Ukraine by his predecessor in the US presidency, Joe Biden, since the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces three years ago.
For its part, Kiev insists on the need to include US security guarantees for Ukraine in the text in order to avoid any future Russian attacks. According to media reports, the new version of the document does not mention such guarantees.
Seeking to maintain Washington's military aid despite Donald Trump's attempt to "warm up" relations with Russia, Ukrainian government officials have largely refrained from public criticism of the new text.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibykha limited himself to saying on April 1 that his country would like to reach a "mutually acceptable" agreement with the US, while stressing that he could "under no circumstances" undo Ukraine's commitments to the European Union, which it hopes to join in the coming years.
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