Zelensky says Ukraine and US are nearing a deal on strategic minerals

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zensky, said on Wednesday, April 16, that negotiators were making “good progress” with the United States in tense conversations on a mineral agreement aimed at ensuring the support of the United States.

“The basic legal things are almost finished, and then, in my thing it moves so quickly and constructively, the agreement will bring economic results to our countries,” Zensky said in his daily speech.

kyiv and Washington had planned to sign an agreement on the extraction of the strategic minerals of Ukraine, until a clash between US President Donald Trump and Zensky in February temporarily derailed the work on the agreement.

Trump wants the agreement, designed to grant the United States royalty payments on the profits of Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals, such as compensation for the help given to Ukraine for his precessor, Joe Biden.

“The Ukrainian government team that works with the American side in the Economic Association Agreement is making good progress,” Zensky said.

He pointed out an update provided by the Minister of Economy, Yulia Svydenko, who previously said that a “significant progress” had been made in the conversations.

She said that the Ukrainian officials had “adjusted several articles within the draft agreement” and that the two parties would sign a “memorandum of intention” soon. The Ukrainian Parliament would vote for any final agreement, he added.

A senior official with knowledge of the negotiations said the conversations advanced “quite fast.” The source told AFP that the newest recruited in the agreement seemed not to recognize US help as a Ukraine debt.

That evaluation echoed a previous Bloomberg News report that said that Washington had facilitated the demand for kyiv to come out with help since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.

He informed that the United States Secretary of the United States, Scott Besent, had an agreement on Monday as “this week.”