Far from offering Kyiv any future assistance, in early February, United States President Donald Trump proposed to his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, to offset at a usurer's rate the American aid already paid out to Ukraine since the Russian invasion of February 2022.

In a pre-contract resembling what a victor might demand from a vanquished enemy, the US asks Ukraine for exclusive rights "in perpetuity" over "mineral, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure," according to the Monday, February 17 edition of UK newspaper The Telegraph, which had access to the document, marked "confidential". A Le Monde source close to the Ukrainian presidential administration confirmed its authenticity and the parameters contained therein.

The preliminary agreement specifies that it is governed by the law of the State of New York, to the exclusion of any other jurisdiction. The draft proposes the creation of a joint investment fund between Washington and Kyiv, to ensure that "parties hostile to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine". It stipulates that the US will receive, with a priority clause, half of the revenues received by Kyiv from resource extraction, as well as 50% of the financial value of "all new licences issued to third parties" for the future monetization of these resources.

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