The mineral agreement between the US and Ukraine is more like a reparations treaty after the First World War - Bloomberg
Kyiv • UNN
The Trump administration has struck a deal with Ukraine giving the US privileged access to its natural resources, including aluminum, oil and gas. The agreement provides for an investment fund to finance military aid.
The administration of US President Donald Trump has finally reached an agreement with Ukraine, which grants the US privileged access to the country's natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil and natural gas. This agreement is reminiscent of the treaty concluded by the US with Germany after the First World War, Bloomberg reports, writes UNN.
Details
The publication notes that this agreement is symbolic of President Trump's transactional style of foreign policy, who threatened to end military support for Kyiv if his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy did not allow the US to benefit from Ukraine's untapped mineral wealth and energy reserves.
Under the terms of the agreement signed on April 30, the United States will have the priority right to the profits that will be transferred to a special investment fund. Part of the profit will go to reimburse the US costs of future military assistance to Ukraine.
The publication reminds that Trump has repeatedly stated that the US has provided Ukraine with too much assistance. He has also repeatedly stated that Americans have made a much greater contribution than European countries.
Seeking to recoup the costs of American aid, Trump initially made huge demands on the war-torn country, demanding the equivalent of $500 billion for rare earths. These materials play a key role in the defense and other high-tech industries.
Ukraine presented the final agreement as an equal partnership, stating that the investment fund will be structured on a 50-50 basis and managed jointly by Ukraine and the United States. State assets, including the oil company Ukrnafta and the nuclear energy producer Energoatom, will remain in Ukraine's state ownership.
The fund will receive half of the revenues from new licenses for the extraction of critical materials, oil and gas. This ensures that Washington will only benefit from new projects, not existing ones. Significant investments will likely be needed in mines and any processing facilities.
What history says
According to Bloomberg analysts, the agreement marks a sharp departure from the traditional US approach to providing assistance to conflict-affected allies. It is less like the American initiative to finance the economic reconstruction of Western Europe after the Second World War, which was called the "Marshall Plan". The minerals agreement is more like the Treaty of Versailles, the post-World War I agreement that demanded reparations from aggressor Germany. The only exception was that in this case, the payments would come from the country that was invaded, namely Ukraine.
According to a study conducted by the Ukrainian government, the World Bank, the European Commission and the United Nations, the money will come from a country that has already been economically devastated by the invasion and needs approximately $524 billion for reconstruction and recovery over the next decade.
In turn, the Marshall Plan, created after World War II, was a strategic investment by the United States to help rebuild European countries as stable partners, curb the spread of communism, and expand the market for American goods. But the agreement with Ukraine is more explicitly transactional, and access to its natural resources serves as a service for US involvement and support. Trump said the pact would allow the US to "get our money back and we'll get a lot of money in the future."
Supplement
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the agreement signed between Kyiv and Washington on the establishment of the Reconstruction Investment Fund is a step towards ending Russia's war against Ukraine.
Thanks to President Trump's leadership, the United States and Ukraine today signed the Reconstruction Investment Fund Agreement - an important milestone in our shared prosperity and a step towards ending this war