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LAST UPDATE | 19 hrs ago
THE US IS moving “at full speed” to implement the newly agreed minerals deal with Ukraine.
Ukraine and the US signed the deal after a two-month delay, in what President Donald Trump’s administration called a new form of US commitment to Kyiv after the end of military aid.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller has said today that the US is moving “as fast as we possibly can” on implementing the newly agreed mineral deal with Ukraine.
“We are moving at full speed,” Miller told a media briefing in the White House.
“It’s meant to pay back the United States – this is the key point – for the hundreds of billions of dollars our taxpayers have spent subsidising the war in Ukraine.”
Trump had initially demanded rights to Ukraine’s mineral wealth as compensation for US weapons sent under former president Joe Biden since Russia invaded just over three years ago.
After initial hesitation, Ukraine has accepted a minerals accord as a way to secure long-term investment by the United States, as Trump tries to drastically scale back US security commitments around the world.
Ukraine said it secured key interests after protracted negotiations, including full sovereignty over its own rare earths, which are vital for new technologies and largely untapped.
Announcing the deal in Washington, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said it showed “both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine.”
“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,” Bessent said.
“And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.”
The Treasury statement notably mentioned Russia’s “full-scale invasion” of Ukraine — diverging from the Trump administration’s usual formulation of a “conflict” for which Kyiv bears a large degree of responsibility.
In Kyiv, Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said the agreement was “good, equal and beneficial.”
Shmygal said the two countries would establish a Reconstruction Investment Fund with each side having equal voting rights and Ukraine would retain “full control over its subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources.”
Meeting a key concern for Kyiv, he said Ukraine would not be asked to pay back any “debt” for billions of dollars in US support since Russia invaded in February 2022.
“The fund’s profits will be reinvested exclusively in Ukraine,” he said.
Downing Street welcomed the economic deal signed by Ukraine and the US.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s official spokesman said this afternoon:
“We obviously welcome steps taken by the US and Ukraine to sign an economic partnership.
“We have our own 100-year partnership which the Prime Minister signed in January with Ukraine and we’re continuing to work with Ukraine to deepen our economic and security ties for future generations of both of our countries.”
Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said the deal would finance mineral and oil and gas projects as well as “related infrastructure or processing.”
Trump had originally sought $500 billion in mineral wealth – around four times what the United States has contributed to Ukraine since the war.
Trump has balked at offering security guarantees to Ukraine and has rejected its aspiration to join NATO. But he said yesterday that a US presence on the ground would benefit Ukraine.
“The American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we’re doing the digging,” Trump said at a cabinet meeting.
Speaking later at a town hall with NewsNation, Trump said he told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a recent meeting at the Vatican that signing the deal would be a “very good thing” because “Russia is much bigger and much stronger.”
Asked whether the minerals deal is going to “inhibit” Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Trump said “well, it could.”
The UK’s Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs David Lammy has said that their support for Ukraine remains “steadfast” as he welcomed the deal.
The UK welcomes steps taken by the US and Ukraine to sign an economic partnership.
— David Lammy (@DavidLammy) April 30, 2025
The UK’s support for Ukraine remains steadfast. With our 100-year partnership, we are deepening economic and security ties for the future generations of both of our countries.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday threatened giving up on mediation unless the two sides come forward with “concrete proposals.”
Since starting his second term, Trump has pressed for a settlement in which Ukraine would give up some territory seized by Russia, which has rejected US-backed overtures for a ceasefire of at least 30 days.
Backed by the international community, Zelenskyy has ruled out any formal concession to Russia of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula seized in 2014.
But he has taken care to voice support for Trump’s diplomacy after a disastrous 28 February White House meeting where Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated him for allegedly being ungrateful for US assistance.
Ukraine holds some 55 of the world’s mineral resources and rare earths, according to various estimates. But work has not yet started on tapping many of the resources and many sites are in territory now controlled by Russian forces.
Notably, Ukraine has around 20% of the world’s graphite, an essential material for electric batteries, according to France’s Bureau of Geological and Mining Research.
Ukraine is also a major producer of manganese and titanium, and says it possesses the largest lithium deposits in Europe.
With reporting by Eoghan Dalton
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