According to the two European officials, the unusual agreement would give the United States of America 50 percent of shares in all Ukrainian mineral resources, including graphite, lithium and uranium.
American Minister of Finance Scott Bensent, who presented the offer of Kiev, told Sunday that the United States would want minerals “as aid for the help we had already given them.”
However, he did not specify whether the agreement would also refer to future military and financial assistance.
One Ukrainian official and energy expert knows the negotiations claim that the Trump Administration sought not only mineral resources, but also additional natural resources such as oil and gas.
According to the proposed agreement, the US would be entitled to half of Ukrainian revenues from the exploitation of these resources – money currently mainly routed to the country and defensive production of the country.
The green, which previously showed the readiness to use Ukrainian mineral resources in negotiations with partners, refused an agreement because it did not include security guarantees for Kiev in the fight against Russia.
Negotiations continue, according to the claims by another Ukrainian official who insisted on anonymity due to the sensitivity of the topic. However, the volume of offers and tense negotiations emphasize the deeper gap between Kiev and Washington in terms of further American support and possible ending of war.
The request for half of Ukrainian resources was presented on Wednesday during the Bessent and Zelenia in Kiev, which was also the first visit of the Trump Official of Ukraine. The U.S. Department of Finance declined to comment on the negotiations.
After reviewing the bid, Ukrainians decided to prepare a contro proposal that would be generally presented at the Munich Security Conference during the meeting with the U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, the Ukrainian official claims.
It is not clear whether the contrast is really surrendered. But Greenski confirmed in Munich on Saturday that he refused the proposal of the Trump Administration, not revealing concrete details.
“I don’t see that link in the document,” he said, Green journalists and added, “In my opinion, it is not a solution that would protect us and our interests.”
For Ukraine, security guarantees are crucial, as the authorities in Kiev believe that the United States did not fulfill their obligations from the agreement signed after the Cold War, when Ukraine submitted nuclear weapons inherited from the Soviet Union.
European diplomats also expressed dissatisfaction. They called the offer neocolonialist, reminiscent of times when Western force exploited less and weaker countries because of their natural resources.
According to the sources, the offer predicted that the United States has been gaining the right not only half of the salary from exploitation, but also from the sale of new mining concessions.
Only in the first half of last year, Ukrainian state energy giant naphthogaz achieved a profit of more than half a billion dollars.
Sources claim that now, according to the offer, part of its earnings reinvested in the renovation of Ukraine after the war, and would also receive a priority when buying Ukrainian minerals, in front of other customers.
Ukraine has 109 significant mineral sites, including the ores of titanium, lithium and uranium, according to the data of the Kiev economy school. It also owns oil and gas fields, although some of them are under Russian occupation or near the front line.
The exact value of the resource remains unclear. In addition to permanent threat from the new Russian aggression after a possible truce, investments have been restrained for years with complex regulations and corruption among Ukrainian politicians and businessmen.
However, there are precedents for the merger of security and business interests between Ukraine and the United States under Trump administration.
In the first term 2017, Trump concluded an agreement in which Ukraine bought coal from Pennsylvania, replacing the one lost under Russian occupation after 2014. years.
Kostiantyn Yelisieev, a former Ukrainian diplomat and a former Deputy Chief of the President, recalled that the agreement was allowed to declare the jobs in Pennsylvania, the key federal state in the elections. For Ukraine, the agreement has opened the path to the procurement of American weapons, including Javelin’s counterpand missile.
“Trump was confirmed by a man of value, but interest and money,” Yelisie’s said, “But then we realized we could work with him on security issues.”
However, the current offer, he goes even further and could serve Russia as a propaganda victory, representing war not as a struggle for independence of Ukraine, but as a conflict around natural resources.
“The most important thing is that this remains a struggle for democracy and defeat Putin,” Yelisie’s concluded.
(Vijesti.ba)
