U.S. announces approval of contentious minerals deal with Ukraine

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Washington Post

April 30, 2025 at 6:12 p.m. EDT


KYIV — The United States and Ukraine have signed a deal to establish joint investment in Ukraine’s mineral wealth, oil, gas and other natural resources, officials said Wednesday, in a move that would fulfill a key White House request and give Kyiv a degree of much-desired U.S. backing.

“As the President has said, the United States is committed to helping facilitate the end of this cruel and senseless war,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump Administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.”

The deal will establish the “United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund” which will allow the “two countries to work collaboratively and invest together to ensure that our mutual assets, talents, and capabilities can accelerate Ukraine’s economic recovery,” Bessent said in a statement.

The latest version of the deal, reviewed by The Washington Post, falls short of providing any concrete security guarantees to Ukraine, but it states that Kyiv and Washington agree it affirms a “long-term strategic alignment” between the two countries and U.S. “support for Ukraine’s security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks.” That language alone marks a win for Kyiv, which has been seeking any show of support from the U.S. since the relationship between the two countries turned rocky under President Donald Trump. Ukraine will seek significantly more tangible security guarantees under any future peace deal.

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/04/30/ukraine-trump-minerals-deal-agreement/

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No paywall (gift) - supposedly no sub required to read this article but...

[stillcool]

1. should have known it would be in pencil

like the last one. No ink.

[Prairie Gates]

2. This is actually a negotiating win for Ukraine

They refused to "reimburse" for past military aid, and it is all done through a joint venture third party. This is a very far cry from "give us control of everything to pay us back for all the aid we've already provided." I mean, maybe that was Trump's goofy initial negotiating position, but even if so, he didn't get nearly any of that.

[GB_RN]

8. Makes Me Wonder...

If (and admittedly, haven’t read the whole thing) Eloon Muskrat is that “third party.”

[Prairie Gates]

9. No, it's the joint investment entity

[Emrys]

3. I posted the details of the initial agreement on General Discussion

See here: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220282724

[BumRushDaShow]

4. Thanks!

[Emrys]

5. You're welcome

It's currently sinking like a stone on GD, but at least it's there!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. That's the busiest forum

and if you go back to the last page of the 30 pages, you'll find that there are only a week's worth of threads in the forum (where there are 80 threads per page and thus 2400 threads "visible" before they get archived)!

[Emrys]

7. Yeah, OPs need some controversy

or a nice juicy fistfight in the replies, or they don't last long on the first page!

[moniss]

10. Actually this is a backdoor way

for Crumb The 1st to turn on Ukraine completely and give support to Russia. He will claim at some point that the Ukrainians aren't living up to the agreement and he will use that as the basis to cut support and switch it over to Russia.

[PortTack]

11. Probably true, but I trust president Zelensky. He knows who 47 is and what he's capable of. If there's a back door for

47, President Zelensky has already rolled that into his plans. He’s too smart to be fooled by that fool

[moniss]

13. Crumb The 1st is pushing the

"Land for Peace" idea but with Putin that is only a guarantee that he will repeat the behavior. I'm not sure that this is not also a strategy to head off the EU stepping in forcefully to give support. So then Putin and Crumb The 1st can maneuver this into claiming bad faith etc. by Ukraine and then turning on them 100% and providing Putin with arms and intelligence.

[PortTack]

15. Putin no doubt plans on a repeat...president Zelensky knows this and won't be fooled.

[IbogaProject]

16. Actually the primary issue is NATO expansion

That has been the issue all along, but the negotiators hand wave it away. Russia is clearly wrong and the aggressor but their pre and war negotiating point was no expansion of NATO into the Ukraine. Yes there are lots of other transgressions going on by Russia but that was their claim during negotiations before this resumption of the war in 2022. https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-unveils-security-guarantees-says-western-response-not-encouraging-2021-12-17/ The rest of Europe says the won't allow Russia to dictate any other countries defensive alliances or security arrangements. Again this doesn't excuse the war whatsoever but just a glimpse of the pre and postwar negotiations.

[mdbl]

12. Just do what Dump would do

sign and agreement and then don't honor it.

[Bayard]

14. Sounds like there's still a lot that's open to interpretation,

And trump interpreting anything always benefits him.