The minerals deal signed between the United States and Ukraine on Wednesday could bring untold money into a joint investment fund between the two countries that would help rebuild Ukraine whenever the war with Russia ends.
But Ukraine’s untapped resources that are the subject of the deal will take years to extract and yield profits. And those could fail to deliver the kind of wealth that President Trump has long said they would.
It is not yet clear how the nine-page deal, the text of which Ukraine’s government made public on Thursday, will work in practice. Although the Trump administration had wanted Kyiv to use its mineral wealth to repay past U.S. military assistance, the idea of treating that aid as debt was removed in the final document.
The deal also seemed to specifically keep the door open for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union, a move that neither the United States nor Russia has opposed.
But there was no mention of a security guarantee — which Ukraine had long sought to prevent Russia from regrouping after any cease-fire.
Still, the much-anticipated signing of the agreement has almost certainly accomplished one thing that seemed almost impossible two months ago: It has tied Mr. Trump to the future of Ukraine.