US and Ukraine have signed the agreement on minerals. Bloomberg writes it, reporting that the agreement guarantees privileged access to new investment projects to develop Ukrainian natural resources, including aluminum, graphite, oil and natural gas.
“I am grateful to all those who have worked for the agreement and have made it more significant. Now the document is such as to guarantee success for both of our countries, Ukraine and the United States”: so the Ukrainian vice -premier Yulia Svyrydenko commented on the agreements signed between Kiev and Washington, according to what was reported by the Ukrainian media. “On April 30, Ukraine and the United States signed an agreement on minerals, which has been expected for some time, which establishes a joint investment fund in Ukraine”, announced Svyrydenko, who today was in Washington to sign the framework agreement on behalf of Ukraine. He signed the document together with the U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Beesent. Shortly before the signing of the agreement in Washington, the Ukrainian premier Denys Shmyhal had announced the green light of his government, specifying that the investment fund for reconstruction will be jointly managed by Kiev and Washington in a parity partnership, with both parties that will contribute to the fund. According to Shmyhal, the future military aid of the United States can be considered contributions to the fund, but the previous assistance is not included.
“The agreement – he specified – does not provide for any debt obligation,” said Shmyhal, and Ukraine will keep “full control over the subsoil, infrastructure and natural resources,” he said. The establishment of the fund will also not interfere with the Ukraine path towards adhesion to the European Union.
Svyrydenko has confirmed these clauses in a post on social media post, adding that Ukrainian state companies such as Energoatom and Ukrnafta will maintain state property and that the agreement complies with the Ukrainian Constitution.
The fund will be powered exclusively by the proceeds deriving from the newly issued licenses: “We are talking about 50% of the funds from the new licenses for projects in the field of critical minerals, oil and gas that will go to the budget after the creation of the fund”, wrote.
“The proceeds deriving from projects already started or the budget proceeds are not included in the fund. The agreement provides for further strategic cooperation”. The income and contributions of the fund will not be taxed in Ukraine or in the United States, he added.
As part of the agreement, the United States will help attract further investments and technologies in Ukraine, Svyrydenko said.
According to the Washington Post (WP), the agreement does not provide concrete security guarantees to Ukraine. Instead, it establishes a “long -term strategic alignment” between the two nations and promises the United States “support for safety, prosperity, reconstruction and integration of Ukraine in the global economic context”.
The agreement also does not include any reference to the Zaporizhzia (Znpp) nuclear power plant occupied by the Russians, reports the WP. US officials had previously suggested to take control of the system as part of a future peace agreement.
The US-Ukraine framework agreement will now have to be subjected to the examination of Kiev’s parliament.
Meanwhile, the Kremlin brakes Donald Trump’s impatience to achieve an agreement on Ukraine, stating that “the causes of the conflict are too complex to be resolved in one day”.
Trump said he “thinking” that the Russian president wants peace in Ukraine. “His dream was to take the whole country but he won’t do it, he respects me,” he assured. But the times deemed necessary by Moscow do not seem to be as fast as those desired in Washington. Russia understands that the US wants “rapid success” in negotiations, commented Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, according to which, however, this haste clashes with the complexity of the issues involved, in particular in relation to the “background causes” of the conflict. “There are many nuances that must be taken into consideration,” added Peskov. Also according to the spokesperson, Russia has the “duty to win” to “achieve the objectives established at the beginning of the special military operation”, because it must safeguard its “national interests”.
However, it would be “preferable” to achieve these objectives for peaceful and therefore Putin “remains open to political and diplomatic methods to resolve the conflict”, but so far there has been “no reaction from Kiev”. Putin himself, among other things, announced by surprise that there are “French citizens fighting side by side” with the Moscow military because “they share the Russian principles and values”. And these French “called their unity, like their grandparents and great-grandparents, ‘Normandie-Niemen'”. That is to say how a hunting department of the Air Force of Libera France who, starting from 1944, operated on the eastern front flanked to the forces of the Soviet Union against the Nazi -fascist invaders. So far Moscow had officially admitted only the participation of North Korean troops in the operations to reject Ukrainian forces penetrated in the Russian Kursk region since last year. According to South Korean parliamentary sources, about 600 Pyongyang soldiers killed in the operation, and over 4,000 wounded. A deputy and Seoul intelligence expert, Lee Seong-Kweun, said that the bodies of the deceased soldiers were cremated in Russia and their ashes were repatriated. In the meantime, Moscow agencies have announced that Russia and North Korea have started work for the construction of a road bridge on the Tumen river to connect the two countries. A project that according to the Russian Prime Minister, Mikhail Mishustin, “symbolizes the common aspiration to strengthen friendly and neighborhood relationships and to promote interregional cooperation” on the ground, the Russian Ministry of Defense has claimed the conquest of a new village, Novoye, in the Ukrainian region of Donetsk. While Volodymyr Zelensky denounced bombings with over one hundred drones on Kharkiv, Dnipro and Dobropillya. The Ukrinform agency talks about one dead in Dnipro and another in the Donetsk region, as well as 45 injured in Kharkiv, including a woman and two children. The Ukrainian President asked the USA and the European Championships to exercise “pressure” on Russia because it puts an end to the raids and to provide greater aerial defenses in Kiev.
USA, signed agreement with Kiev for Fund for reconstruction
The United States and Ukraine have signed an agreement to establish the investment fund for the United-Ukraine States reconstruction. This was announced by the American treasure. “Recognizing the significant financial support and material provided by the US people to the defense of Ukraine after the Russian invasion on a large scale – we read in a note – this economic partnership allows our two countries to collaborate and invest together to ensure that our resources, skills and mutual skills can accelerate the economic recovery of Ukraine”.