USA and Ukraine Polzada closer to signature mineral agreements

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The United States and Ukraine are close to signing a Mineral Framework Agreement as soon as this week, after Kiev said he won a significant concession from the Trump administration for not taking into account in the past military aid.

The latest development points to a significant step forward after a signing ceremony in a previous version of the agreement was canceled in February after the public disagreement at the Oval Office between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Following this dust, Trump insisted on billions of dollars of last United States military assistance, which should be considered loans to be refunded through the agreement. Zelenskyy rejected this proposal.

“It was agreed that the assistance provided before the agreement signing will not be counted towards him,” said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal wrote on his Telegram channel on Sunday night. A high Ukrainian official said he could open the way for the framework agreement to be signed this week.

The advance comes after Trump with Zenskyy In the Vatican over the weekend, in which the President of the United States described as a “beautiful meeting” and praised the Ukrainian leader to “do a good job.” “I see him calmer,” Trump added. “I think he understands the picture and I think he wants to make an agreement.”

Trump has also expressed deep frustration in the last days toward Ukraine And Russia about what they perceive as the sides at war who do not want to make concessions to stop the largest war in Europe in 80 years.

“I was very disappointed that Russia was (thrown) missiles … I want Putin (Putin) to stop firing, sitting and signing an agreement,” Trump said on Sunday in a rare criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Critics have attacked Trump for being more critical and accumulating more pressure on Kiev than in Moscow.

On Monday, Putin declared a unilateral cessation from May 8 to 10, when Russia marks the anniversary of the Soviet Union victory in World War II.

Kremlin said he was willing to have “peace talks without preliminary conditions to solve the initial motifs of the Ukrainian crisis”, a reference to Putin’s maximalist conditions to end the war.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tightened these conditions on Monday, saying that Russia felt that the “international recognition” of its annexation of five Ukrainian regions was a “imperative” for any agreement.

Russia also wants a final agreement to include Kiev’s ban on NATO and Ukraine’s “demilitarization and skim”, Lavrov said in the Brazilian or Globo newspaper.

Moscow also calls for western countries to revoke sanctions, return their $ 300 million in freezing central bank assets and give the Kremlin “reliable safety guarantees” against “NATO threats” and EU countries on their border.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha asked why Moscow had to wait until May 8. “If Russia really wants peace, he must stop firing immediately,” he said, reiterating the Ukraine position that is “ready to withstand a lasting and complete cessation.

Trump has seen the so -called Mineral Agreement to jointly exploit Ukraine’s rare lands and other natural resources, such as a way to recover the billions of $ military aid sent to Kiev under the Joe Biden administration and to promote Zelenskyy to wider peace negotiations.

The U.S. pressure campaign has been evident from a few days before the Oval Office, when Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessent, visited Kiev and demanded Zelenskyy to sign the initial frame agreement in the presence. The meeting was diverted in a shouting match.

On Sunday, Shmyhal said he had held a “important meeting” with Bessent to eliminate the final details.

“Legal teams are working on the document. We have advanced well,” he said, adding that Ukraine had clearly defined his “red lines”.

The senior Ukrainian officials had previously told Financial Times that the United States application to use the revenue of the mineral agreement to pay past military assistance could have mined the sovereignty of their nation, potentially searching for Ukraine’s push to join the EU and would not have been approved by the country’s parliament.

Many Ukrainian MPs, including some of the Zelenskyy governing party, have expressed concern about the mineral agreement and told the FT that they would not vote for a bad agreement.

High Ukrainian officials told the FT that the completed framework agreement was applied to all mineral resources, including oil and gas, and the main energy assets throughout the Ukrainian territory.

“The agreement must comply with European commitments and do not contradict the constitution and legislation of Ukraine,” said Shmyhal, suggesting that the new agreement was in the process of facing Kiev’s concerns.

Kyiv and Washington signed a memorandum of intentions This month he undertakes to advance an agreement on the investment fund part of the agreement on natural resources and energy assets of Ukraine.

Negotiations have been so sensitive that Zelenskyy earlier this month ordered an investigation The filtration of the previous United States proposal, which included the use of polygraph tests for government officials.

In an interview with Fox News on Sunday, U.S. National Security Minister Mike Waltz said he was confident that the agreement will “be made.”

“The negotiators were working hard over the weekend,” he said, adding that Trump “is determined to do it.”