President`s office: Questions still remain in the US mining agreement

Questions remain about the US mining agreement. Illustrative photo: Associated Press News

The United States and Ukraine are negotiating a mining agreement, but the document still contains clauses that raise certain questions, particularly in the context of security guarantees.

This was reported by «Suspilne» with reference to its own sources.

«The teams worked last night, until the morning. However, it is premature to say that the draft agreement on rare earth minerals with the United States has been improved in the interests of Ukraine. From a security perspective, there are still certain issues that need to be finalised,» our source said.

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Bloomberg notes that Trump wants to get the equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earth metals, which are mainly used in high-power magnets. However, according to experts, although Ukraine has potential mineral reserves, most of them are currently considered economically unfeasible for extraction.

Earlier, Donald Trump said that he would like to conclude a deal under which Ukraine would supply the US with rare earth minerals needed for electronics production in exchange for US aid.

However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised Donald Trump's proposal to provide Ukraine with military assistance in exchange for its minerals.

Subsequently, US President Donald Trump said that Ukraine had agreed to provide Washington with access to rare earth minerals worth $500 billion.

It should be noted, however, that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy refused to sign the agreement on granting the US access to rare earth minerals. The White House called this decision «short-sighted».

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the US might consider investing in mining on the Black Sea shelf, which is currently under Russian occupation.

However, Donald Trump later stated that he intended to renew the agreement with Ukraine on rare earth minerals.

US National Security Advisor Mike Volz called on Kyiv «to tone it down» and sign the mining agreement, which had been previously rejected by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Then, the administration of US President Donald Trump sent Ukraine an updated version of the mining agreement, which took into account some of Kyiv's comments.