The U.S. Treasury Department is moving forward with a comprehensive agreement on access to Ukraine’s mineral resources without involving Kyiv in the drafting process, skipping the initial memorandum stage, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko claimed on Monday.
According to a statement published on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s official website, the U.S. and Ukraine had agreed on March 11 to sign a full agreement regarding Ukraine’s mineral development.
“Now, a full agreement will be signed. It is being drafted by the U.S. Department of the Treasury. The document will be about 40 pages long. The Ukrainian side has not yet seen the document and is not involved in its development,” Goncharenko said via Telegram.
Initially, the plan was to sign a memorandum on rare earth metals as a foundation for a broader deal outlining clear terms and funding distribution. However, Goncharenko alleges that U.S. officials opted to bypass this step.
The controversy follows a failed meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28 in Washington. Talks collapsed in the Oval Office over undisclosed disagreements, leading Trump’s senior staff to ask the Ukrainian delegation to leave the White House and cancel a planned joint press conference.
Although the Ukrainian government had already approved the minerals deal, Trump ultimately decided against signing it.
