Ukraine and the United States signed a memorandum of cooperation in the field of mineral extraction on April 17, 2025, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko said. The document, announced earlier by President Volodymyr Zelensky, is a preliminary step towards a full-fledged agreement, which, according to US President Donald Trump, will be signed on April 24. The memorandum is aimed at attracting American investment in the development of Ukrainian deposits, including lithium, cobalt and rare earth metals, to compensate for the US costs of military and financial assistance to Kyiv. However, the terms of the future deal are controversial, since, according to The New York Times, they oblige Ukraine to direct a significant portion of resource revenues to an investment fund under US control, without clear security guarantees for Kyiv.

According to the publication's sources, the agreement envisages that Ukraine will transfer half of its revenues from fossil fuel exports, as well as profits from related infrastructure such as ports and pipelines, to a fund managed by the American side. The funds will be reinvested in Ukrainian projects in an unspecified proportion until Kyiv reimburses the US for its costs, estimated at $100 billion, taking into account 4% per annum. Initially, as Bloomberg reported, Washington demanded repayment of $300 billion, but the amount was reduced during the negotiations. The absence of a clause in the draft on security guarantees, which Zelensky insisted on, is causing concern among the Ukrainian authorities, who are seeking to link economic cooperation with protection from military threats.

According to Reuters, the memorandum was signed during an online meeting between Svyrydenko, the Ukrainian economy minister, and Trump administration spokesman Steve Witkoff. According to Ukrainska Pravda, the document paves the way for the development of deposits in the Kirovohrad and Zhytomyr regions, where lithium reserves needed for battery production are concentrated. This could attract companies such as BlackRock and Tesla, but, as European Pravda notes, U.S. control over the fund raises concerns that Ukraine risks losing sovereignty over its resources.