(Bloomberg) — The US is pushing to control all major future infrastructure and mineral investments in Ukraine, potentially gaining a veto over any role for Kyiv’s other allies and undermining its bid for European Union membership.
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President Donald Trump’s administration is demanding the “right of first offer” on investments in all infrastructure and natural resources projects under a revised partnership deal with Ukraine, according to a draft of the document obtained by Bloomberg News.
If accepted, the partnership agreement would bestow enormous power on the US to control investments into Ukraine in projects including roads and railways, ports, mines, oil and gas and extraction of critical minerals. It would represent an unprecedented expansion of US economic influence in Europe’s largest country by area just at the time when it’s attempting to align with the EU.
The agreement would grant the US first claim on profits transferred into a special reconstruction investment fund that would be controlled by Washington. Crucially, the document states that the US regards the “material and financial benefits” provided to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022 as its contribution to that fund.
In effect, this would mean the Trump administration would compel Ukraine to pay for all of the US military and economic support provided since the start of the war before Kyiv received any income from the partnership fund.
The US delivered a revised agreement to officials in Kyiv last weekend after plans for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to sign an earlier accord fell apart following a tense Oval Office confrontation with Trump last month. The White House said last week that the administration was moving beyond the previously negotiated deal covering critical minerals in Ukraine.
Discussions are continuing between the two sides and the final draft may contain revisions to the terms. Ukraine will likely respond to the US document with its own amendments this week, a person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News.
The full agreement put forward by the US requires “detailed study” and the terms are changing constantly during negotiations, Zelenskiy told reporters in Paris on Thursday, where he’s attending a summit with European leaders. While it’s too early to say an agreement has been reached, “we support cooperation with the US, we don’t want to give a single signal that can prompt the US to stop aid to Ukraine,” he said.
The US remains committed to a quick conclusion to the agreement and to securing a lasting peace for both Ukraine and Russia, a US Treasury Department spokesperson said in response to a request for comment.
“The mineral deal offers Ukraine the opportunity to form an enduring economic relationship with the United States that is the basis for long term security and peace,” National Security Council spokesman James Hewitt said. “It will strengthen our two nations’ relationship and benefit both parties.”
Zelenskiy has sought to draw Ukraine’s allies into investing in the country as part of his so-called Victory Plan to help secure it against future Russian aggression. Trump put forward his own demands for a deal to access Ukraine’s critical minerals shortly after he took office in January, as compensation for US support in the war.
Trump has moved to strike agreement with Ukraine as he also presses Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin to reach a deal to end the war. So far, the US has pushed for Ukraine to make a series of concessions, including potentially giving up claims to territory occupied by Russia, while making practically no demands of Putin.
Ukraine secured EU candidate status in 2022 and is set to begin accession talks for full membership that could take years to complete. That’s likely to be further complicated if the US has effective control over investment decisions covering large areas of Ukraine’s economy.
Ukraine has previously said that a deal with the US must not conflict with its association agreement with the EU. It has also previously rejected the US push to include Washington’s past support for Ukraine as its contribution to the joint fund.
According to the draft document, the US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) would control the investment fund by nominating three of five board members and holding a “golden share” that gave it special voting rights to block certain decisions. Ukraine would name the other two and be prevented from intervening in the fund’s day-to-day management.
The government in Kyiv would be required to put 50% of its earnings from all the new natural resources and infrastructure projects into the fund. The US would have the right to all of the profit plus a 4% annual return until its investment had been recovered, the draft stated.
Ukraine would be obliged to present all projects to the fund for review “as early as practicable,” with the DFC gaining board seats or oversight on all funded programs. Kyiv would be barred from offering rejected projects to other parties with “materially better” terms for at least one year.
In addition, according to the draft, the US government would have the right to purchase Ukraine’s metals, minerals and oil and gas ahead of other parties on commercial terms, regardless of whether the fund was financing the project.
The deal, which has no time limit, also forbids Kyiv from selling critical minerals to countries that are “strategic competitors” of the US.
—With assistance from Daryna Krasnolutska, Aliaksandr Kudrytski, Daniel Flatley and Natalia Drozdiak.
(Updates with National Security Council spokesman comment in 10th paragraph.)
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