The US and Ukraine have signed “memorandum of intent” that Kyiv’s Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko described as paving “the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.”
The two countries previously agreed to a deal to allow the US to access Kyiv’s natural resources and critical minerals, in what Trump calls payment for US aid to Ukraine during former President Joe Biden’s term.
But the deal fell through, after a public clash between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office in February.
“It is very important that the document notes the desire of the American people to invest together with the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign, and secure Ukraine,” Svyrydenko said on X.
Trump also said that the long-awaited minerals deal could be signed as early as next week.
“We have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told reporters that the deal was “substantially what we’d agreed on previously.” He added that the signing could come by next Friday. (DW)