Kiev reportedly believes Washingtons figure is far too high

Ukraine has pushed back on the proposed establishment of a $500 billion fund which would reimburse the US for its aid in exchange for a significant cut of the country's mineral revenues, according to an unnamed Kiev official cited by Bloomberg. The country reportedly insists that actual US assistance was worth roughly $90 billion.

Speaking at a Conservative Political Action Conference on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said that the deal is "pretty close" and "we'd better be close to a deal." He also declared, "we're going to get our money back" and "we're asking for rare earth and oil - anything we can get."

Since February 2022, the US Congress has appropriated $183 billion for Ukraine, including more than $66 billion in security assistance, according to the Pentagon and Ukraine Oversight, the interagency group tasked with presenting reports to Congress.

Kiev's negotiators are pressing for more time to finalize a draft agreement, Bloomberg reported on Saturday. An unnamed person with knowledge of the talks told the outlet that the current version proposed by the US includes "questionable elements" and Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky isn't willing to sign it.

Ukrainian officials discussed the revised minerals accord with US special envoy Keith Kellogg during his visit to Kiev on Wednesday.

An unnamed Ukrainian official told Bloomberg that the lack of assurances for future military and financial aid from the US remains a sticking point in the negotiations. The Associated Press quoted an unnamed official as describing the agreement in its current form as "colonial."

It came after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was unable to finalize a minerals agreement in Kiev last week. Trump has expressed dissatisfaction with how the Ukrainians treated Bessent, who had made a perilous train journey to reach the Ukrainian capital.

Trump accused Ukraine of derailing the deal and said he plans to "resurrect" it, warning that otherwise "things are not going to make [Zelensky] too happy."

On Friday, the US presented a revised agreement, which was obtained by The New York Times. IT still lacked security guarantees for Ukraine and introduced even stricter financial terms. Two unnamed Ukrainian officials told the newspaper that Kiev had submitted amendments to the draft agreement on Saturday night.

The updated proposal apparently reiterated the US request for Ukraine to surrender half of its revenues from natural resource extraction, which includes minerals, gas, oil, and earnings from ports and other infrastructure. The plan would channel those revenues into a fund where the US would hold 100 percent of the financial interest. Ukraine would be required to contribute to the fund until it reaches $500bn.

"Let's also be clear as to what this is not. The US would not be taking ownership of physical assets in Ukraine. Nor would it be saddling Ukraine with more debt," Bessent explained in an opinion piece for the Financial Times on Saturday.

According to a 2024 World Economic Forum report, Ukraine "holds immense potential as a major global supplier of critical raw materials" that could be "essential" for defense, the technology sector, and green energy. However, Zelensky recently admitted that a large chunk of mineral-rich territory is currently under Russian control.

(RT.com)