To give the subsoil: Why is Ukraine’s agreement on rare earth metals a victory? Igor Humenny tells

On May 1, 2025, Ukraine and the United States signed a subsoil agreement and the creation of a reconstruction fund. Forbes Ukraine asked an entrepreneur from Kharkiv and UBC Group Igor Humenny to share his strategic vision of this iconic event

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The “blank” version of the “subsoil agreement” of Ukraine and the USA, which is available for the public, looks like an agreement in our favor. Of course, further detail and ratification is required.

Perhaps if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed more diplomatics, he came to his own pride in meeting with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Cabinet of the White House, we would have received it in February. But this is not exactly, the main thing is the result.

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The agreement is needed primarily to us – Ukraine.

We depend on US military assistance. Not to mention that US assistance is half the expenditures of the Ukrainian budget.

Without the US technical assistance, Europe will not be able to close our weapons needs in the next two or three years, even if you have finance (which is also questionable), that is, replace the US.

Frankly, I thought the conditions would be worse.

The agreement is a victory. No previous assistance transfer to a contribution to the authorized fund. Only future supplies!

According to the Agreement, the United States is financially interested in Ukraine’s success.

We are not in words, in business we got a partner.

I hear a lot about the sale of national heritage, resources.

Tell me who used to access resources in Ukraine? Who in Ukraine had such licenses for mining?

Firtash, Kolomoisky, Pinchuk, Akhmetov, Onishchenko and further on the list. Plus countless number of nameless offshore.

It reminds me from one of the scenes of the old Hollywood fighter in 1939 Stagecoach: “Only Insiders Get To Loot” – “Robbery have their own”!

Does someone believe that during independence in Ukraine it was just like that – without bribes or political ties – at least one license for the extraction of subsoil was issued?!

The US Agreement may be the cornerstone of building a new, civilized Ukraine. It is scary to say that, probably, there would be no such opportunity if it were not for war.

It is the success of Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ministry of Economy Yulia Sviridenko and the entire team of Ukrainian winners.

The gun