Trump set to offer Ukraine new terms for deal on minerals – Reuters

The plans changed after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected a detailed US proposal last week that would have given Washington 50% of Ukraine's most important minerals, including graphite, uranium, titanium, and lithium, a key component in electric vehicle batteries.

The episode made it clear that reaching a full agreement will take time, sources say. But Trump wants a pact with Ukraine in place before potentially authorizing more US military support for Kyiv or moving forward with an attempt to mediate formal peace talks between Ukraine and Russia to end the three-year war that followed Moscow's invasion of its neighbor's territory.

Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is in Kyiv this week to discuss the parameters of a revised pact and what Ukraine needs in exchange for signing. Zelenskyy said he would meet with Kellogg on February 20, and expressed hope that this meeting - and general cooperation with America - would be constructive.

Asked whether the US government would continue to push for a deal, the Trump adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of Zelenskyy: “Absolutely, we need to get this guy back to reality.”

Attempts to strike a deal continue despite a growing rift between Trump and Zelenskyy.

On February 19, Trump condemned his Ukrainian counterpart, calling him a “dictator without elections,” after Zelenskyy said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble, in response to the US president's suggestion that Ukraine started the war.

Over the past three years, the United States has provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine, and Trump has said that US investment in Ukrainian minerals could ensure that “we're going to in some form get this money back.” He is pushing for Kyiv to grant the US $500 billion worth of concessions in recognition of Washington's aid.

The sources said that it is important for Trump to publicly make it clear to the American people that the US is repaying the assistance provided.

A less 'predatory' deal

It is unclear to what extent the original US offer was framed as compensation for past arms shipments or for future shipments. But Zelenskyy said it focused too much on US interests and contained no security guarantees for Kyiv.

“I can't sell our country,” he told reporters on February 19.

A third source familiar with the situation said that Ukraine is ready to make a deal with the Trump administration. Another source also said that Kyiv is ready to make a deal, but that it should not look as “predatory” as the deal originally proposed by the United States.

The details of the discussions in the US on a potential deal, including who in the administration helped draft the original proposal, are unknown.

The revised approach is just one of several options being discussed in the White House to reach a deal with Kyiv in the coming weeks. This is an unusually tight timeline for a complex sector where deals typically involve private companies and state-owned entities, not governments.

Trump reiterated his frustration that most of the US aid has been grants, while Europe, he said, has mostly provided loans. “While the United States gets nothing back, so they get their money back,” he said.

He also criticized Zelenskyy's rejection of the 50/50 split, characterizing it as a violation of the agreement without any evidence that Kyiv had actually agreed to it. “And we had a deal based on rare earth and things, but they broke that deal… they broke it two days ago,” Trump said.

'Tried and tested' Chinese tool

The revised, simplified approach will help the United States bypass numerous legal and logistical hurdles and allow time to negotiate project details, including revenue sharing, at a later stage.

“The US has not historically used natural resource-for-aid swaps, but it's a tried and tested tool in China's minerals playbook,” said Gracelin Baskaran, director of the Critical Minerals Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Ukraine is extremely interested in building a deeper economic and defense relationship with the United States, as well as finding a way to recognize the significant investment the US has already made in Ukraine's future, said Tyson Barker, former Deputy Special Envoy for Ukraine's Economic Recovery.

“The Ukrainians are more than willing to give extra advantages to the United States, in the form of privileged concessional access to critical mineral resources, in recognition of the billions of dollars that American taxpayers have put into Ukraine. This is something that Ukrainians have been working on for some time,” he said.

Barker said that similar terms would need to be offered to other countries that have made significant contributions to the war in Ukraine, including Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, and the EU.

However, Russia is also eager to exploit Ukraine's natural resources, and its troops, which have already seized a fifth of Ukraine, including rare earth metal reserves, are now just 6 kilometers from a giant lithium deposit.

Ukraine and the United States should discuss the fate of mineral deposits in the territories seized by Russia, Zelenskyy said, asking whether the minerals in these territories will be handed over to Vladimir Putin and his allies Iran, North Korea, and China.