Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced that under the agreement with the USA regarding the use of mineral resources, aid provided by Washington earlier will not be counted. He made this statement following negotiations with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
This is reported by Kyiv24
«An important meeting with US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, where a separate topic of discussion was the agreement between our countries. Legal teams are working on the document. We have made good progress. The main thing is that we clearly defined our red lines; the agreement must comply with European obligations and not contradict the Constitution and legislation of Ukraine. It must be ratified by Parliament. Agreements have been reached that the document will not include aid provided before its signing,» he wrote in a Telegram message.
Discussion and Future Prospects of the Agreement
On April 23, the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance of Ukraine met with their American counterpart to discuss the details of the agreement. On that day, the US Treasury Department reported that Scott Bessent emphasized the importance of quickly concluding technical negotiations and signing the economic partnership agreement between the countries.
“The agreement is expected to cover all natural resources of Ukraine, including oil, gas, and key energy assets,” reports Bloomberg.
According to sources, Ukraine will propose amendments to the draft agreement, particularly regarding increasing American investments. According to information from the Financial Times and Bloomberg, the USA insists on signing an agreement that should cover all natural resources of the country, but no security guarantees are being offered to Kyiv. This raises certain contradictions, as the previous version of the document also did not contain such guarantees, which President Zelensky insisted upon.
Both sides were ready to sign the agreement back in February; however, its signing was postponed after a dispute during a meeting in the Oval Office. Trump actively promoted this agreement since the beginning of his second term in January and reportedly expected it to be signed on April 24.