Ahead of his team’s continued talks with the White House next week over a proposed deal with the US on natural resources development in Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky explained that his side was never going to be pressured to simply give away its minerals, rare earth metals and fossil fuels without a fair split of the revenues, and that he was unhappy with the way it was initially handled.
“If we are talking about partnership and parity, we say that we are partners, and we will have such a fund, and this is great,” Zelensky told reporters gathered in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“And we want 50/50. So let’s invest 50/50. You want 50/50? Yes. And what is the priority of the United States? The fact that we are doing this on our land. And this is absolutely normal. You bring the technology. We provide the production. we invest money together. Jobs, production…
“Our people earn money, your companies earn money with technologies that are not available in Ukraine. All of them,” he continued. “And this can be a success. And the agreement will be serious, and it will be ratified in the parliament. I am just defending what belongs to Ukraine. It should be beneficial to both the United States and Ukraine. This is the right thing to do.”
The initial framework agreement – which was planned to be agreed upon on Feb. 28 but was never signed – envisaged a jointly managed investment fund with revenues from Ukraine’s natural resources used to rebuild the war-torn country.
An updated draft, the exact details of which were not made public either, reportedly expanded on that plan but raised more questions over Ukraine’s role in managing the fund.
The iteration before both negotiating teams now, while still not providing explicit security guarantees for Ukraine, reportedly contains language describing an even split of the revenues and even control of the fund’s management, which both sides seem to find acceptable.
He was probably expecting a different dialog.
But Zelensky was vocally critical on Wednesday about the way that Trump’s team, led by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, demanded he sign the first draft of the agreement without even having time to look it over, or present it to the legislature, which incidentally holds the only constitutional authority to ratify such a deal.
“I think Bessent’s problems are in his approach,” Zelensky said. “And what he came with, he said: ‘You have to sign this now’.
“I’m not going to hide it: I have different traits, just like everyone else,” he said. “My colleagues know that it’s wrong to point a finger at a contract and say, ‘You have to sign it now,’ and I could only tell him, ‘Stop pointing and let’s talk about the substance.’
“He was probably expecting a different dialogue, but I don’t consider Ukraine a third-rate country. I believe that we should communicate on equal terms, despite the fact that I am the President and he is not. I believe that he is an American citizen, I am a citizen of Ukraine. And we have to behave with respect for each other,” Zelensky said.
“This will be one of the discussions. It is important. Because we will be ready to talk about the principles on which we are ready to base the future agreement. This is a technical group, most likely headed by Deputy Economy Minister Kachka. And there will be representatives of other ministries,” Zelensky added.