The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, says he ordered his ministers not to sign a proposed agreement to give the United States access to rare minerals of Ukraine because the document was too focused on US interests.
The proposal, which was a key part of Zelenskyy's conversations with the US vice president JD Vance out of the Munich Security Conference on Friday, did not offer any specific security guarantee in return, according to a former current Ukrainian official and a former former Alto Ukrainian familiar with the talks.
Zelenskyy's decision not to accept the proposal, at least for now, was described as “vision of vision” by a senior White House official.
“I did not let the ministers sign a relevant agreement because, in my opinion, it is not ready to protect us, our interest,” Zelenskyy told The Associated Press on Saturday in Munich.
The proposal focused on how the United States could use kyiv's rare land minerals “as compensation” for the support already granted to Ukraine by the Biden administration and as a payment of future aid, the current and former high Ukrainian officials said, speaking, speaking anonymously so they can speak freely.
Zelenskyy insists on security guarantees
Ukraine has vast critical mineral reserves used in aerospace, defense and nuclear industries. The Trump Administration has indicated that it is interested in accessing them to reduce China's dependence, but Zelenskyy said that any exploitation would need to be linked to security guarantees for Ukraine that would dissuade the future Russian aggression.
“For me it is very important to connect between some type of security guarantee and some type of investment,” the Ukrainian President told AP.
Zelenskyy did not come into details about why he ordered his officials not to sign the document, who was delivered to Ukrainian officials on Wednesday by the United States Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Basent, on a visit to kyiv.
“It is a colonial agreement and Zelenskyy cannot sign it,” said the former senior official.
The spokesman for the White House National Security Council, Brian Hughes, did not explicitly confirm the offer, but said in a statement that “President Zelenskyy is being myopic about the excellent opportunity that the Trump administration has presented to Ukraine.”
Get last minute national news
For the news that affects Canada and worldwide, register to receive news alerts that are given directly when they occur.
The Trump administration has tired of sending additional American help to Ukraine and Hughes said that a mineral agreement would allow US taxpayers to “recover” the money sent to kyiv, while the economy of Ukraine grew.
Hughes added that the White House believes that “economic ties binding with the United States will be the best guarantee against future aggression and an integral part of lasting peace.” He added: “The United States recognizes this, the Russians recognize this and the Ukrainians must recognize this.”
Ukrainians are concerned with ensuring mineral sites of Russian attacks
American officials in discussions with their Ukrainian counterparts in Munich were of commercial mentality and largely concentrated on the details of exploring minerals and how to form a possible association to do so with Ukraine, said the senior official.
The potential value of deposits in Ukraine has not yet been discussed, with much unexplored or near the front line.
Apparently, the United States proposal did not take into account how deposits would be ensured in the case of continuing Russian aggression. The official suggested that the United States did not have “lists” responses, to that question and that one of his conclusions of discussions in Munich will be how to ensure any operation of ores extraction in Ukraine that involves people and infrastructure.
Any agreement must agree with the Ukrainian and acceptable law for the Ukrainian people, said the Ukrainian official.
“The subsoil belongs to the Ukrainians under the Constitution,” said Kseniiia Orychak, founder of the National Association of the Mining Industry of Ukraine, suggesting that an agreement would need popular support.
Zelenskyy and Vance did not discuss the details of the American document during their meeting on Friday at the Munich conference, said the senior official. That meeting was “very good” and “substantive”, with Vance making it clear that Trump's main objective was to achieve lasting and lasting peace, said the senior official.
Zelenskyy told Vance that real peace requires that Ukraine be in a “strong position” at the beginning Talk to Russia.
No Europeans at the negotiating table?
But General Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, almost eliminated Europeans from any conversation of Ukraine-Russia, despite Zelenskyy's application.
“You can have the Ukrainians, the Russians and clearly the Americans at the table speaking,” Kellogg said in an event organized by a Ukrainian tycoon at the Munich conference. Pressing if that meant that Europeans will not be included, he said: “I am a school of realism. I think that will not happen. “
Ukraine is now preparing a “counterproposal” that will be delivered to the United States in “the near future,” said the official.
“I think it is important that the vice president has understood me that if we want to sign something, we have to understand that it will work,” Zelenskyy told the AP.
That means, he said, “will bring money and security.”
– The associated press writers Aamer Madhani in Washington, DC, and VolodyMyr Yurchuk and Susie Blann in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report.
& Copy 2025 the Canadian press