A meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US Vice President JD Vance has been postponed after reports that Ukraine was refining a draft agreement on partnership.
The draft was delivered to Kyiv on Wednesday by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. However, the US representatives, having familiarised themselves with the document before the meeting between Zelensky and Vance, requested time to study the Ukrainian revisions.
Zelensky previously said that he would cement agreements on the issue of exchanging Ukraine’s rare-earth metals for further US aid at a conference in Munich. However, he has not yet signed the agreement, according to media reports.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that Europe could also consider Ukraine’s rare-earth metals as “a major factor in the growth of the entire European economy.”
We are talking about hundreds of billions of dollars that European businesses could be involved in, as well as the creation of production and jobs both here and in the bloc’s countries. Anyone who sees their own prospects would want to take part in it. The EU is our conscious choice, not a temporary whim. And we’re proving the sincerity of our intentions, arms in hand.
Exchange of rare earths as part of Zelensky’s “victory plan”
In early February, US President Donald Trump confirmed that a condition for maintaining support for Kyiv’s military efforts in the war against Moscow was that Washington would gain access to Ukraine’s critical mineral reserves.
We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine, where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things.
Despite German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemning Trump’s announcement as a “very selfish” policy, the first to suggest an exchange was Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky travelled to the United States in September 2024 with his “plan for victory.” He then presented his outline to former US President Joe Biden, the former vice president Kamala Harris, and Trump.
Trump left the interview expressing his satisfaction with Zelensky’s “very interesting” proposal. One of the points of the Ukrainian leader’s plan was access for companies from allied countries to Ukrainian rare earths.
Ukraine is particularly rich in minerals such as titanium, graphite, lithium and uranium. In late 2024, the governments of Zelensky and Biden were close to signing an agreement, but the Ukrainian side stalled the process while waiting for Trump to return to the White House.
Last Sunday, White House national security adviser Mike Waltz said that Trump’s priority was to ensure that the US military investment in Ukraine would be repaid with its natural resources.
We need to recoup those costs. And that is going to be a partnership with the Ukrainians, in terms of their rare earths, their natural resources, and their oil and gas, and also buying ours. Those conversations are going to happen this week.
A $500 billion deal
Trump said on Monday that he wanted to be compensated for aid provided so far and in the future by setting a price.
They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured. They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion of rare earth, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that.
In addition to US support, Zelensky tried to bargain for Ukraine’s invitation to join NATO, a move opposed by Biden and now Trump.
In response to Zelensky’s request to provide additional security guarantees for Ukraine in the form of nuclear weapons instead, Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for negotiations with Ukraine and Russia, said that Kyiv’s chances of obtaining such weapons “are somewhere between slim and zero.”
The rare earth issue coincides with a diplomatic offensive that Trump says he is taking to get Russia and Ukraine to sign an agreement to end the war this year.
