Ukraine may have already signed all three documents on the minerals deal with the United States, the Financial Times reports, Focus reports.
The newspaper reported that when Ukraine's Finance Minister Yulia Sviridenko traveled to Washington to sign the framework agreement on Wednesday, US officials insisted that she sign two additional documents - a full fund agreement and a technical program. The US also accused Kiev of trying to restart negotiations.
According to the sources, US officials said that Sviridenko should “be ready to sign all the agreements or go home“. Initially, the Ukrainians refused, insisting that the fund agreement must be ratified by parliament, but later "they decided to find a way". Then the Cabinet of Ministers allowed Sviridenko to act without parliamentary approval, which led to the finalization of the deal.
According to this logic, the three documents have already been signed, but the signing of the last two will be announced only after the ratification of the first, which is scheduled for May 8.
The Ukrainian government has officially announced only the signing of a framework agreement, which does not contain many specifics. However, other media outlets and Ukrainian lawmakers have already claimed that more detailed technical agreements have been agreed, but the government in Kiev has not yet spoken about them.
The FT also writes that when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the idea of minerals to presidential candidate Donald Trump in September, he sought to interest him in continuing military aid to Ukraine if Trump won the election. Trump responded with “interest”, but the Ukrainians could not have predicted how keenly he would become interested in Ukrainian minerals and what disastrous consequences the negotiations could have for Kiev, President Zelensky, and efforts to deter a Russian invasion.
A senior Ukrainian official said Zelensky should have been “crystal clear” about the link between the agreement and future U.S. security guarantees. “We didn't choose between good and bad - we chose between bad and worse. What we got is better than the original offer,“ said Inna Sovun, a member of the “Eurosolidarity” party.