Ukraine's crucial new agreements on minerals and intelligence
On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine has received a revised agreement from the United States concerning access to the country's mineral resources. In parallel, Ukraine has reached an understanding with additional international partners to gain broader access to their intelligence information.
What you need to know?
- New agreement: President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that Ukraine received a new version of an agreement from the United States concerning access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
- Access to data: Ukraine has obtained expanded intelligence data from European partners.
- Political context: Previously, Donald Trump accused Zelensky of breaching an agreement concerning shares in the revenues from rare earth metals.
- Previous talks between the United States and Ukraine leaders ended in a disagreement, and the agreement was not signed.
Rare earth metals in Ukraine. USA sent a new agreement
The President of Ukraine announced that the new version of the agreement regarding the use of rare earth metal resources by the United States in his country arrived in Kyiv on Friday.
Volodymyr Zelensky also emphasized that Ukraine has reached an agreement with European partners, which will provide it with expanded access to their intelligence data.
Let's remember that last Monday, Donald Trump, in an interview with journalists after a Cabinet meeting, stated that the United States had reached an agreement with Ukraine regarding the rare earth minerals deal.
The US president, quoted by Reuters and the Kyiv Independent portal, said at the time that the country expects to "soon" sign an agreement with Ukraine regarding access to key minerals and natural resources.
The agreement mentioned by Trump arrived in Kyiv on Friday.
Conflict over rare earth metals. Trump accused Zelensky
At the end of February, Trump accused Zelensky of breaching an agreement intended to grant the United States a 50% share in revenues from rare earth metals in return for assistance provided.
He publicly threatened that either the agreement would be reinstated, or "the situation would not please Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky". Trump once again called for elections in a country under martial law and labeled Zelensky a "dictator" who dragged the US into a "war that could not be won."
Rare earth metals, also known as rare earth elements, are a set of 17 chemical elements, including scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium.
