Negotiators from Ukraine are illuminating the final details of the agreement in Washington to develop the country’s natural resources, which they hope will strengthen economic partnerships with the United States, according to people familiar with the discussion.
People say both parties agreed to the main agreement and processed some technical elements in separate texts and said anonymously. Although both sides believe an agreement is reached, the Ukrainians now want to sign the overall deal immediately and details will be determined later. But the United States insists that all components must be shared.
“One of our side is ready to sign,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Wednesday at a cabinet meeting at the White House. “The Ukrainians decided last night to make last-minute changes. We are sure they will rethink that. If anything, we are ready to sign this afternoon.”
The agreement “will be signed in the near future and hopefully within 24 hours.”
Two texts that still need to be fully agreed upon include mechanisms to ensure funding matches international best practices, one of the people said, adding that the U.S. was ready to sign existing drafts after negotiators worked until the early hours of Wednesday.
A U.S. fiscal spokesman told Bloomberg News that the U.S. is “committed to quickly conclude this important agreement and ensure lasting peace in Ukraine.” “President Trump said the time to complete this work is now and we are doing our best to move towards this goal.”
The deal will give the U.S. privilege to acquire new investment projects to develop Ukraine’s natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil and gas, which has been underway since February. Hirhar said the Ukrainian cabinet was ready to ratify the agreement, which would require approval by the country’s parliament.
According to the draft of Bloomberg News, under the agreement, the United States and Ukraine will seek to create conditions to “increase investment in mining, energy and related technologies in Ukraine.” Washington also acknowledged that Kiev’s intention was that the agreement avoided any conflict with plans to join the EU – long seen as Ukraine’s red line in negotiations.
In another breakthrough, the document said, the United States agreed that only future military aid it can provide to Ukraine can rely on its contribution to the fund. Ukrainian Prime Minister Shmyhal said on Sunday that Washington insisted that the deal stipulates billions of dollars of aid have been delivered since the Russian invasion began.
President Donald Trump is increasingly frustrated by the ceasefire in the war and is now in his fourth year, signing more and more frustrated. He questioned whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be willing to make progress towards a peace plan within the first 100 days of Trump’s new administration. The White House said on Tuesday that Trump was “confident” to sign a deal with Ukraine on key minerals.
The document said the mineral agreement “strengthens strategic partnership between the parties involved in Ukraine’s long-term reconstruction and modernization in response to the massive damage caused by the Russian full-scale invasion.”
U.S. and Ukrainian officials signed a memorandum of intent in early April and continued to abandon technical details of the deal, which would grant the U.S. profit claims transferred for the first time to a special reconstruction investment fund controlled by Washington.
Previous attempts to reach the deal were successful after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy clashed with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office. Zelenskiy met the U.S. president in the Vatican before Pope Francis’ funeral on Saturday.
Russia has intensified its attacks on Ukraine’s frontlines and several cities in Ukraine, as the Kremlin takes the biggest attitude in the U.S. peace talks. While Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff tried to convince Putin to agree to a ceasefire, i.e., to stop fighting on the current front, Russian leaders insisted that Moscow must have full control of four regions in Ukraine, which is said to have not been completely occupied, but not completely occupied.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt reiterated on Tuesday that Trump was frustrated by the difficulties of getting Ukraine and Russia to agree to a peace deal, but “he remains optimistic that we can do that.”
With the help of Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Volodymyr Verbianyi, Piotr Skolimowski, Olesia Safronova and Courtney McBride.
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