The first moves of the US president to reach peace in Ukraine were a bit indelicate, they made the Europeans and the Ukrainians angry and they didn’t lead to any agreement, also because the Russians are starting to cash in on the numerical advantage on the front line. Just like in the “Great Patriotic War” for us Westerners it is the Second World War, they tired the enemy, even with significant losses, but without stressing the infantry forces and now they are advancing trying to complete the project of their special operation.
But to return to the issue of the peace plan and the annexed agreement on rare earths and minerals, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent went to Kiev last week and then the same proposal was brought back to the Munich Conference by Donald Trump’s envoys, who actually showed up at the Conference to see President Volodymyr Zelenszy with a pen in hand demanding that the president use it to sign the agreement, claiming that it was the first step towards peace and a way to reimburse the US for the costs. But instead Zelensky sent it back to sender, including the pen, and flew off to ask for help from Erdogan, a NATO member, who has long proposed himself as a mediator for Russia and Ukraine, avoiding going to Saudi Arabia.
Mikhail Podolyak, adviser to the head of Zelensky’s office, said: “Ukraine, in addition to the previous demands for security guarantees, proposes to include in the agreement with the United States on mineral resources the terms of sharing profits from their extraction and the provision of foreign investments.” And again: “It is important for us to understand what the investments will be, their conditions, how they will come to Ukraine, how we will develop these areas and how the profits from work in these areas will be distributed: again: the volume of investments, how the profits will be distributed among the participating countries,” he said. “Then we move on to the other part that worries Ukraine. These are security guarantees in the broad sense of the word. They should also be fixed in the agreement. As Podolyak said, Ukraine “wants to get more profits from this.”
On February 21, after much chatter in Kiev, Keith Kellog and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke about the negotiations and in a joint statement: “Ukrainian and US negotiators are trying to overcome differences in the strategic minerals agreement this week. To move towards finalizing the agreement.”
The American proposal involves receiving 50% of the revenues from the sale of licenses and other profits from Ukrainian minerals, which would violate Ukrainian legislation. In response, Kiev said that Ukraine has proposed changes to the agreement so that it is beneficial for both parties.
And while Washington and Kiev are trying to improve the agreement, Denis Pushilin, the governor of the DPR (the Ukrainian part under Moscow’s control), said that most of the mining sites of interest to the US are currently under Russian control. The fact is that since the West has been arguing with the East, rare earths useful for the construction of the new technology have been in short supply, also considering the fact that Africa, where there are plenty of them, is already under Chinese, Russian and Turkish management, they are only in Serbia and Ukraine. Vladimir Putin put an end to the issue when during an interview, answering a question, he said: “Russia continues not to extract lithium, even if it could have done so 10-15 years ago”. As if to say that whatever agreement may be reached with Kiev, the market is currently in Moscow’s hands.
Graziella Giangiulio
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