KYIV (AFP) – Long-running and fraught talks between Kyiv and Washington on a deal that would give the United States (US) preferential access to Ukrainian natural resources are progressing quickly, a senior official told AFP yesterday.
Ukraine and the US had planned to sign a deal on extracting Ukraine’s strategically important minerals, until a televised clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky derailed the agreement.
“The negotiations are moving forward quite fast,” the official close to the talks told AFP in Kyiv.
Trump wants the deal – designed to give the US royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals – as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
The source told AFP that newer drafts of the accord appeared not to recognise US aid as a debt owed by Ukraine.
That assessment echoed an earlier report from Bloomberg News that reported Washington had eased its demands that Kyiv pay back aid delivered since the invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
It reported that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Argentina had said on Monday that a deal could be signed as early as “this week”.
