"Form of 21st century robbery": Ukrainian diplomat on U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal

He shared his opinions with Espreso TV. 

"I've only seen certain parts of this document, and it clearly appears to be a form of 21st-century robbery. It's unclear why we need this or why we should agree to it. While it's clear that Ukraine requires direct land investments, technology, and expertise — especially since we do extract some resources ourselves, like gas, oil, and certain rare earth materials — much of it still requires exploration and, ultimately, industrial development.

Naturally, we are interested in attracting the United States and other countries, especially European ones. I wouldn't want China involved in these developments, as that wouldn't be the right approach. The main idea behind launching this initiative was to offer preferences to the Americans in exchange for security guarantees," he said.

However, the Trump administration is not planning to provide such guarantees, as it had already rejected Ukraine's NATO membership bid before negotiations with the Russians began. According to Oleksandr Khara, if the agreement had included Ukraine's membership in the alliance, then it would have been worth agreeing to.

"I would say this: even if the terms of this agreement were not very favorable economically, if Ukraine were accepted into NATO, it would probably be worth agreeing to. Since NATO is not on the table, and the United States has no intention of being present in Ukraine in any significant way, I am absolutely confident that President Trump is unlikely to submit a bill for aid for 2025 or 2026 to Congress. Therefore, these terms must be purely commercial and based on the benefits for the Ukrainian side. I fully agree with how the President of Ukraine phrased it: we do not owe the United States these 350 billion or any other billions, since the previous Congress and the previous president decided to provide this aid on a non-repayable basis. We cannot, in fact, take on legal, financial, or other obligations that we did not assume at the time. So, of course, I am also outraged by how this has been presented. It seems to me that the Ukrainian side correctly stated and formulated that this is a preliminary document, and we need to work on it before we arrive at a mutually beneficial document with the Americans. I think this is the right approach," added the diplomat.

• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated on Thursday, March 27, that the U.S. has proposed signing a full agreement on minerals instead of a framework agreement.
• The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has returned to the rare earths deal the demand that Ukraine reimburse all the aid the U.S. provided after the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022.
• Ukraine's Minister of Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko, confirms that the government has received a draft agreement on minerals from the United States.
• On April 1, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said that Ukraine has started consultations with the United States on a new text of the agreement on mineral resources.