Ukraine offiical Yulia Svyrydenko did not publish details of the memorandum, says work continues towards securing final deal.
Ukraine and the United States have signed a memorandum as an initial step towards the clinching of an agreement on developing minerals in the country, Kyiv’s first deputy prime minister and economy minister said.
“We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine,” Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on the social media platform X.
Kyiv and Washington had discussed signing a deal on extracting Ukraine’s strategic minerals in February, but a clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy temporarily derailed work on the agreement.
Trump says he wants the deal, designed to give the US royalty payments on profits from Ukrainian mining of resources and rare minerals, as compensation for aid given to Ukraine by his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Svyrydenko did not publish details of the memorandum, but said work continued towards securing a final agreement.
“We hope that the Fund will become an effective tool for attracting investments in the reconstruction of our country, modernisation of infrastructure, support for business, and the creation of new economic opportunities,” she said.
“There is a lot to do, but the current pace and significant progress give reason to expect that the document will be very beneficial for both countries.”
The Ukrainian delegation travelled to Washington at the end of last week for negotiations after the Trump administration offered a new, more expansive deal. The initial framework agreement that was agreed to has never been signed.
“We have a minerals deal, which I guess is going to be signed on Thursday,” Trump told reporters at the White House earlier.
Zelenskyy had also said earlier that the two countries could sign a memorandum of intent online.
“This is a memorandum of intent. And we have positive, constructive intentions,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv.
He added that the offer to sign the memorandum before the comprehensive deal, which would require ratification in the Ukrainian parliament, had come from the US side.
US officials say boosting American business interests in Ukraine will help deter Russia from future aggression in the event of a ceasefire.
Kyiv is pushing for concrete military and security guarantees as part of any deal to halt the three-year war.