Bessent on rare earth deal failure: There was very elegant plan

Bessent stated that President Zelenskyy was escalating the situation and that many of his statements in Munich were unacceptable. He noted that when he met with Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian leader assured him he would sign the minerals agreement in Munich but ultimately did not do so.

According to Bessent, Trump had a very "elegant" plan to bring Ukraine and the United States closer together - to conclude an economic agreement on cooperation. He also emphasized that greater US economic interests in Ukraine provide a "security shield."

The US Treasury Secretary described a possible scenario if the Ukrainian President had signed the agreement. According to him, the sequence of events was supposed to involve bringing Ukraine closer to the US through economic ties, convincing the American people that both countries were on the same side, and then telling Russia to come to the negotiating table.

When asked whether the US was prepared to either tighten or ease sanctions on Russia depending on the progress of peace talks, Bessent called it a very good characterization.

US-Ukraine partnership agreement

On February 12, the United States presented Ukraine with a draft agreement on natural resources. The agreement could reportedly be reached at the Munich conference. Bessent called the US-Ukraine partnership agreement a long-term security shield for Ukrainians.

In particular, the United States insisted on gaining control over a wider range of Ukrainian materials under the partnership agreement. These include lithium, graphite, and uranium, which are sometimes confused with rare earth materials.

Later, the media reported that the United States offered to transfer the rights to 50% of mineral reserves to Ukraine, and Zelenskyy refused to sign the document on such terms.