Important Takeaways:

• By all accounts the hold-up in the US and Ukraine potentially agreeing to a final mineral deal has been President Zelensky’s refusal to sign – seeing in it selling off Ukraine’s economic sovereignty; however, sources on both sides strongly suggest a deal is very close.
• “I will not sign what ten generations of Ukrainians will have to pay back,” said President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a press conference Sunday. President Trump is seeking access to some $500 billion in the country’s minerals, including rare earths, to repay Washington for its wartime aid.
• Kiev as well as many of its European partners have complained that the deal offers no clear security guarantees or even the promise of future aid in return. Instead, it appears set up to repay the US billions in past aid, and Ukrainian officials and the media have described it as punitive.
• Still, there appears to have been some weekend progress, and the Zelensky government knows it’s in no position to fiercely push back, also given that the Trump administration is essentially calling for a near-future change in leadership at this point, having blasted Zelensky as a ‘dictator’.
• A fresh description from US officials involved say the deal will commit to a “free, sovereign and secure” Ukraine and achieving a “lasting peace” as part of it. This will include the US agreeing to “durable partnership” between Washington and Kiev, the texts show as reported by Bloomberg.

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