US makes tougher demands in revised agreement with Ukraine: media reveal details

The draft agreement between Ukraine and the USA includes revenues from territories now under rf control. If they are returned by Kiev, the share of revenues from there to the fund will amount to 66%, reports UNN citing The  New York Times.

Details

According to the newspaper, Ukraine on Saturday was seriously considering a revised U.S. proposal for its vast natural resources, which contains virtually the same provisions that Kiev had previously rejected as too onerous, according to a draft document of the new proposal. Some of the conditions seem even tougher than in the previous draft.

Although Ukraine had not finalized the deal as of Saturday afternoon, its agreement to the terms would represent a capitulation to America’s demands after a week of intense pressure from President Trump. The American president views access to Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth as necessary compensation for the billions the United States has given Kiev for its war against russia.

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The media outlet said that the deal could deprive Ukraine of funds that are now mostly invested in the country’s military and defense industry and that could help rebuild the country after the end of the war.

The terms of the new proposal, dated Feb. 21 and reviewed by The New York Times, call for Ukraine to give up half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as revenues from ports and other infrastructure.

A similar demand was made in a previous version of the agreement, dated Feb. 14 and reviewed by The Times. Four current and former Ukrainian officials and a Ukrainian businessman, to whom the terms of the new proposal were described, confirmed that the requirement remained unchanged.

Ukraine has raised the prospect of partnering with the United States on its valuable natural resources to persuade Trump to provide additional support for its military efforts, as well as guarantees against future Russian aggression in the event of a peace deal.

The mass media point out that the new document contains neither of the two. In particular, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought security guarantees for Ukraine, a condition that was missing from the first draft of the agreement presented to him last week, which prompted him to refuse to sign the agreement.

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“The new document says the revenues will go into a fund in which the United States has a 100 percent financial interest, and that Ukraine must contribute to the fund until it reaches $500 billion, the amount Trump has demanded from the war-torn country in exchange for U.S. aid. That amount, more than twice what Ukraine produced before the war, was not mentioned in the previous version of the agreement. It is unclear whether Trump is requesting this amount in exchange for past U.S. military and financial aid or whether it will also be applied to future support,” the article said.

In addition, the revised proposal states that the United States could reinvest a portion of the revenues in Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction, including by investing in the development of the country’s subsoil and infrastructure.

“The new draft agreement also includes provisions on revenues from the territories currently occupied by russia, in case of their liberation: the share of resource revenues coming to the fund from the liberated territories will be 66 percent. Currently, Russia occupies about a fifth of Ukraine’s territory, including significant parts of the resource-rich Donbas region,” it said.

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According to The New York Times, the deal could potentially be finalized by the end of the day Saturday, but it could also be delayed given Zelensky’s previous opposition to its terms.

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Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, visited Kiev from Wednesday through Friday and discussed the new proposal with Zelensky.

The potential Ukraine resources deal has become a major point of contention in the rapidly deteriorating relationship between Mr. Zelensky and Mr. Trump. Their interaction turned acrimonious last week when the American president attacked Mr. Zelensky in very personal terms, calling him an “unelected dictator.

The Ukrainian president, for his part, said Trump was living in a “disinformation web” after Trump falsely claimed Ukraine had started a war against russia.

Two of the people to whom the new proposal was described said that one of the few changes made by the United States that might have satisfied Ukraine was the deletion of a clause placing the deal under the jurisdiction of a New York court. This clause was of concern to the Ukrainian side because it could have weakened Ukraine’s legal position in the event of a dispute.

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According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a research organization in Germany, the U.S. has allocated $119 billion in aid to Ukraine.

The Trump administration suggested that the very presence of US economic interests in Ukraine would be a security guarantee for Kiev. In recent days, key members of the US cabinet have been pressuring Zelensky to sign the agreement.

“President Zelensky is going to sign this agreement, and you’re going to see that in the short term,” U.S. National Security Advisor Mike Walz said Friday. “And that’s a good thing for Ukraine. What could be better for Ukraine than an economic partnership with the United States?”