Ukrainian Economic Minister Julia Sibridenko said the text of the agreement will be finalised next week after further talks in Washington.
The Ukrainian economy minister says it signed a memorandum of intentions with the United States, paving the way for the rare earth mineral agreement to be finalised next week.
She said, “This document is the result of the professional work of the negotiation team and recently completed another technical discussion in Washington.”
“It’s the finalization of the text of the contract and its signature and ratification by Congress,” added Syvrydenko.
The Memorandum of Intent says Ukrainian Prime Minister Dennis Schmichal will travel to Washington earlier next week to meet Treasury Secretary Scott Bescent to complete the deal.
Ukraine has considerable rare earth deposits, including graphite, lithium and titanium, and electronics and uranium are also used.
Details of the contract have not been made public, and it is not clear whether it includes the security guarantees requested by Ukrainian President Voldy Mie Zelensky to prevent future Russian invasions.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that if the US does not make any progress in the coming days, it is ready to “move ahead” from efforts to negotiate a ceasefire between Russia and the Ukrainian peace agreement.
Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Trump has defended various iterations of the mineral trade as a way to recover the funds the US has spent to help defend Ukraine.
The US has since provided Ukraine with around $120 billion worth of direct aid worth of $120 billion, most of which came in the form of weapons transferred directly from the US to Ukrainian stockpiles.
Zelenskyy is reluctant to see the wealth that Ukraine has signed, without promiseing any form of security, after more than a decade of war with Russia-backed separatists.
Trump previously suggested that Ukraine would provide the United States with $500 billion worth of rare earth and important mineral deposits.
The latest iteration of the published deal would not attempt to recover previous US support, but instead create a joint US-Ukrainian Reconstruction Fund that benefits the US from Ukrainian mineral development.
Trump’s attempts to surround Kiev and Moscow with a temporary ceasefire remain in the frontier.
Aerial view shows a drug line excavator operating on February 28, 2025 at an open-pit titanium mine in the Zhytomyr region of Ukraine. Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
The first partial ceasefire agreement, which leadership from both Ukraine and Russia agreed last month, sought to halt the attack on civilian energy infrastructure for 30 days.
The deal was violated almost immediately, with officials from across the country accusing them of violating the ceasefire by obstructing oil facilities in parts of Russia, occupied by Ukrainian forces.
Putin said the end of the war would require Ukraine to hand over four eastern provinces to Russia, abandoning its quest for NATO membership and for some reason to be banned from hosting foreign troops in its soil.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
