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US-Ukraine rare earths deal: fast track for Washington, 350 billion investment

Strategic understanding between Washington and Kiev: guaranteed access to Ukrainian mineral resources in exchange for a reconstruction fund. Trump: ‘We will receive more than the 350 billion spent in the war’

The United States and Ukraine have signed a historic agreement on the exploitation of natural resources, including joint investments in the mining, oil and strategic sectors. For Washington, this is a fast track on access to materials crucial to the technological and military industries, starting with rare earths. For Kiev, economic support also linked to security, albeit in a non-explicit form.

President Donald Trump announced the white smoke by speaking of an agreement that represents ‘compensation’ for the $350 billion spent by the US since the beginning of the conflict: ‘Theoretically, we will receive much more than that amount,’ he declared. A view that some analysts, according to the Washington Post, call ‘premature’, given that the Ukrainian mining sector is currently almost at a standstill due to the ongoing war.

Ukraine is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of raw materials: it is home to 5% of the global mineral wealth and possesses titanium, lithium, beryllium, manganese, gallium, graphite, uranium, and other strategic elements. Titanium, in particular, is crucial for key sectors such as aerospace, defence, medicine and automotive. But the development of these deposits will take years and considerable investment, not least because, as observers point out, no country outside China today has a complete lithium industry.

The agreement, finalised after complex negotiations and last-minute changes, led to the creation of the US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund. The facility aims to foster the country’s economic recovery through strategic public-private partnerships. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that the arrangement demonstrates ‘the US commitment to a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine’.

Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, called the understanding ‘a fundamental step for security and reconstruction’. However, Kiev failed to obtain a direct reference to military guarantees: the text merely evokes a ‘long-term strategic alignment’ and support for Ukraine’s security, prosperity and international integration.

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, under Russian control since 2022, is not mentioned in the agreement, although the US would have proposed operating it after the war.

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