Ukrainian and U.S. officials have signed a joint economic investment deal that includes granting the U.S. access to Ukrainian rare earths minerals, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.
A Treasury Department press release said the two countries have agreed to establish a “United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund,” referring to it as an “economic partnership.” The statement did not include more detail about the agreement.
Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s economic development minister, confirmed that she signed the deal. In a series of posts on X written in Ukrainian, she described it as a 50/50 partnership between the U.S. and Ukraine that includes development of mineral, oil and gas projects. She said the deal would be funded through direct investment, future U.S. aid and revenue from new mineral licensing deals — and does not set up any Ukrainian debt obligations.
According to a Ukrainian fact sheet, the U.S. would contribute to the fund “either through direct financial input or through new military assistance,” and the agreement “focuses on further, not past U.S. military assistance.” Ukraine would contribute 50% of any royalties from future — but not existing — oil, gas and mineral licenses.
Under the deal, Ukraine would hold onto ownership of its natural resources, and the fund can only be invested in resource and infrastructure projects within Ukraine. Profits from the fund would be reinvested in the Ukrainian economy for the first decade, and can be “distributed between the partners” after that, the fact sheet also said.
An official at the Development Finance Corporation — a U.S. government agency helping to oversee the deal — said the joint fund will “make strategic investments in critical minerals, hydrocarbons, natural resources, and natural resources-related infrastructure in Ukraine, which will help diversify and secure supply chains essential to U.S. economic prosperity and national security.”
The fund will also “select vital critical minerals to the United States for offtake,” the official said.
President Trump had pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about an economic deal that would include access to Ukraine’s minerals, framing it as a way of paying the U.S. back for aiding the Ukrainian military in its war with Russia. Ukraine is believed to hold about 5% of the world’s reserves of rare earth elements, which are used in electronics, defense technology and energy projects. Some of the country’s reserves are located in parts of eastern Ukraine that are occupied by Russia.
Mr. Trump touted the deal in an interview with NewsNation late Wednesday. “They have things that a lot of places don’t have. It’s a big asset that they have,” Trump said, of Ukraine’s rare earth element reserves.
Zelenskyy initially traveled to Washington in February to sign a mineral deal with Mr. Trump. Those plans were derailed after an explosive Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump, Zelenskyy and U.S. officials including Vice President JD Vance. During the meeting, Vance accused Zelenskyy of being insufficiently grateful for U.S. military aid.
Negotiations continued despite the public acrimony. Earlier Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at a Cabinet meeting the U.S. was prepared to sign a deal, but Ukraine had requested “last minute changes.”
Mr. Trump has cast the mineral deal as a key part of his broader gambit to broker an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, which began when Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022.
Those talks have proven rocky: At least twice in recent weeks, Trump administration officials have threatened to pull out of negotiations unless more progress is made. Mr. Trump has lashed out at Zelenskyy repeatedly, calling him a “dictator” earlier this year and accusing him last week of prolonging the war by refusing to recognize Russia’s occupation of Crimea, which Russia took from Ukraine in 2014. The two leaders held a private meeting Saturday in the Vatican while attending the funeral of Pope Francis.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has threatened to tighten sanctions on Russia unless Russian President Vladimir Putin agrees to a deal. Russia launched deadly strikes last week on Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv, angering Mr. Trump, who posted “Vladimir, STOP!” on Truth Social.
contributed to this report.
