Kyiv wants to ‘align’ with US over minerals – DW – 04/07/2025

A team of Ukrainian negotiators will travel to the US this week, hoping to close a mineral deal that has been stalled for weeks.

The administration of President Donald Trump has demanded guarantees for a large US business presence in a post-war Ukraine as well as some mineral rights in the country in exchange for aid.

Originally due to be signed in February, President Zelenskyy walked out of a White House meeting without agreeing to the deal after a fiery exchange in front of cameras with Trump and Vice President JD Vance. 

Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko wrote on X that the new Ukrainian team would “aim to align on project selection, legal frameworks, and long-term investment mechanisms,” with US partners.

The Ukrainian delegation to Washington will include representatives of the economy, foreign, justice and finance ministries, she added.

One sticking point in the deal is aid provided to Ukraine by the US under former President Joe Biden. Zelenskyy has said he will not agree to view that aid as loans that must be repaid.

The exact details of the current draft of the deal have not been made public.

As Western leaders from Donald Trump to French President Emmanuel Macron accuse the Kremlin of dragging its feet on a peace deal, the spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said that a “whole range” of questions remain that have not been answered by the other parties.

“Putin does support the idea that a ceasefire is needed, but before that a whole range of questions have to be answered. These questions are hanging in the air, so far no one has given an answer to them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. 

Putin has said that any peace agreement must address Russia’s central questions over the future of Ukraine, and whether Moscow or the West will have more influence in Kyiv.

On Sunday, Trump told reporters “We’re talking to Russia. We’d like them to stop. I don’t like the bombing. The bombing goes on and on.”

Russia unleashed a series of major aerial attacks over the weekend, including on Kyiv and on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih.

Some 18 people were killed in the attack on Kryvyi Rih, and Zelenskyy later called the muted response from allies in the US “surprisingly disappointing.”

The president added that the number of airstrikes was dramatically increasing, and that the pressure on Moscow from the international community was “insufficient.”

At the same time, Russia also claimed to have captured two villages in eastern Ukraine.