The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, has ratified the intergovernmental minerals agreement recently signed by Ukraine and the US.
A total of 338 lawmakers voted in favor, according to a live broadcast from the parliament.
With Thursday’s vote, the agreement officially clears the way for the creation of an investment fund aimed at developing Ukraine’s critical minerals sector.
The Head of the Presidential Office, Andriy Yermak, shared a video of the vote on Telegram, writing:
“338 votes in favor. A historic decision. This agreement will make Ukraine stronger. Thank you all for your work. This is how history is made.”
Prior to ratification, the agreement was reviewed and approved by the Rada’s Foreign Affairs Committee, after the Cabinet of Ministers submitted the necessary documents, including an explanatory note, the agreement text and registration.
The first deputy head of the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Finance, Tax, and Customs Policy, Yaroslav Zheleznyak, said that the committee’s decision included a key safeguard stipulating that “Any additional arrangements on establishing the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund shall not contradict this agreement.”
Deputy Economy Minister and Ukraine’s Trade Representative Taras Kachka stated earlier that two additional technical agreements will be signed later, but they do not require parliamentary ratification.
“We’ve separated what needs to be ratified by the Verkhovna Rada and what can remain at the corporate level. At the same time, parliament retains the right to oversight,” Kachka said.
Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signed the deal in Washington on May 1, establishing a joint fund to oversee revenues from extracting natural resources on Ukrainian soil.
American companies will help develop these resources, which range from fossil fuels to some rare-earth metals.
A vote in favor marked the conclusion of a months-long saga that began in February, when Bessent’s office first presented the agreement to President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv.
Under the agreement, the two countries will create the “United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund” as a limited partnership.
The US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) will manage the fund on the American side, while Ukraine will oversee it through the “Agency on Support [of] Public-Private Partnership,” known as the PPP Agency, the details of which will be outlined in one of the two additional agreements.