The Kremlin is mocking the recently finalized mineral resources deal between the U.S. and Ukraine as an attempt on the part of the U.S. to extract wealth from a country on its last legs.
The United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund was signed on Wednesday by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, who visited Washington, D.C., to finish hashing out the details. The Trump administration hailed the document as a meaningful start to secure lasting peace in the war and strengthen the U.S.’s alliance with Ukraine.
“Trump has finally pressured the Kiev regime to pay for U.S. aid with mineral resources,” Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council and former president of Russia, said in a statement on Thursday. “Now, the country that is about to disappear will have to use its national wealth to pay for military supplies.”
President Donald Trump cast the deal as a viable way to recoup the costs in military aid that the Biden administration sent to Ukraine since Russia invaded its neighbor in February 2022, eight years after Moscow forcibly annexed Crimea from Kyiv. Many countries still recognize the Crimean Peninsula as Ukrainian territory.
The minerals deal specifically gives the U.S. privileged access to Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil, and natural gas, and forms a joint economic partnership between the two nations. The agreement provides no explicit security guarantees to Ukraine but it does affirm a “broader, long-term strategic alignment” that pledges U.S. support for “Ukraine’s security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks,” the text released by Ukraine’s Cabinet of Ministers says.
Ukraine is expected to retain “full control over subsoil, infrastructure, and natural resources” under the deal, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
It also does not provide any debt obligations that the Ukraine owes the U.S., contrary to Medvedev’s statement.
“It’s clearly said that . . . there is no debt for Ukraine, so we are not owing something to the United States for the moment,” Ukrainian parliament member Oleksiy Goncharenko told Al Jazeera, signaling potential U.S. military aid in the future. “If the United States sends us more weapons, then it will be part of this deal so then we will return this money.”
After the deal was signed, the State Department notified the Senate that it is planning to sell $50 million or more in military equipment to Ukraine. If approved, the money would be transferred under direct commercial sales, which gives U.S. defense companies permission to sell weapons directly to a foreign buyer. The process offers an alternative to the Pentagon’s Foreign Military Sales program.
The minerals deal underwent a two-month negotiation process that stalled after Trump publicly argued with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. Their relationship appears to have been mended after Trump met with Zelensky on amicable terms at Pope Francis’s funeral in Rome last weekend.
Despite the historic agreement, Russia continues launching deadly airstrikes on Ukrainian cities. In an overnight drone attack on Odesa, at least two people were killed and 15 more were injured. Moscow also launched an airstrike on Kyiv last week, leaving at least twelve people dead and dozens more wounded.
The attack on Ukraine’s capital prompted Trump to call for Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop the fighting and sign a peace deal.
A lasting cease-fire remains out of sight at the moment, but Putin is expected to hold a three-day truce from May 8 to 10 in remembrance of Russia’s victory over Nazi Germany at the end of World War II. The Kremlin announced the three-day, unilateral cease-fire after Putin declared a similar truce over Easter weekend, but the prior agreement didn’t hold after both Ukraine and Russia accused each other of violating the temporary cease-fire in a few thousand instances.
Asked by NewsNation on Wednesday whether the minerals deal would “inhibit” Putin, Trump responded that “it could” but argued that the reason for agreeing to the pact was to recoup the billions of dollars in military assistance supplied by the previous administration.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed on Monday that Trump’s frustration applies to both Putin and Zelensky, as the war rages on. Trump campaigned on ending the conflict, once saying he could do so within 24 hours. The White House celebrated its first 100 days in office this week.