The negotiations were harsh, long, often little reduced on the American side. However, they found a positive conclusion on Wednesday April 30. The United States and Ukraine have announced the signing of an agreement on the exploitation of natural resources in the country devastated by the war, since the Russian invasion of 2022. The two parties will establish an investment and reconstruction fund, with equal participation, which will have to ensure the operating projects contained in Ukrainian soil, as well as oil and gas.
The idea of origin of an American involvement in these projects had been put forward by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in September 2024. But upon his arrival at the White House, Donald Trump envisaged this subject as a form of payment for the American and financial assistance initiated since the start. Aid which he estimated arbitrarily at $ 350 billion, while the real amount is about three times lower.
The American president therefore wanted a form of gigantic repair, without offering the essentials in the eyes of Ukraine: security guarantees, to protect it from possible future Russian attacks. The arrival of Volodymyr Zelensky in the oval office at the end of February was a diplomatic disaster, postponing the signing of the mineral agreement. His first version was extremely unfavorable to kyiv and looked like an extortion, which Washington wanted to have signed without delay.
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