Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Economy Taras Kachka complained about pressure from US President Donald Trump during the work on the mineral resources agreement and compared the negotiations with the American side to mafia movies.
In an interview with the British newspaper The Times, he said that there was enormous pressure from the US President to quickly conclude a deal.
“We saw all of President Trump's posts on Truth Social. But if we put aside emotions, this simply shows a strong interest in this agreement here and now“, the deputy minister added.
Recalling the course of the negotiations, he compared them to films, “in which people in dark suits quietly decide matters of life and death“. “It was a calm conversation, like in a mafia movie“, Kachka noted.
First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Sviridenko, for her part, told the newspaper that the implementation of the agreement would require a lot of time and high costs. She is already expecting Washington to take action.
“We need investments between $5 and $10 billion - the implementation of projects for critical raw materials requires a lot of time and very high costs. New projects require us to conduct geological surveys, preliminary assessment and feasibility study“, Sviridenko explained.
Verkhovna Rada deputy Nina Yuzhanina has already shared her fears of a sharp reaction from Trump if it becomes clear that Ukraine does not have rich mineral resources that would interest Washington. According to her, geological maps were compiled back in Soviet times. If they do not correspond to reality, Kiev may completely lose Washington's support.
On May 1, the Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers published the text of the document signed with the United States on underground resources. Many media outlets and Rada deputies, after analyzing its provisions, expressed dissatisfaction with the terms of the deal, noting that the agreement means that Kiev loses part of its economic sovereignty, without providing the security guarantees that were so much talked about in Volodymyr Zelensky's cabinet. In addition, parliamentarians were outraged that the Rada did not present two additional documents that were mentioned in the text of the main agreement.
However, on May 8, in the presence of the acting US representative to Ukraine Julie Davis, the Rada voted to ratify the treaty. Trump had earlier noted that if Zelensky tried to “back out of the deal“, he “would have big problems“.