The agreement does not provide Kiev with security guarantees, according to Prime Minister Denis Shmigal
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal has confirmed that Kiev’s key demand of US-provided security guarantees is not part of the recently signed mineral resources agreement between the two countries.
The deal was signed on Wednesday after months of negotiations and later published by the Ukrainian government. The agreement establishes a joint investment fund and gives Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral resources. Half of future revenues from the nation’s mineral, gas and oil extraction ventures will go into the fund, tax-free, while the US will match the payments, with any future military aid counted as part of Washington’s contributions.
“There are no formal defense guarantees in this agreement, but each new military aid package provided by the US to Ukraine is considered a capital contribution,” Shmigal said in the Ukrainian parliament on Friday.
This encourages the US administration to continue and not stop supplying us with weapons.
The official added that “the supply of intelligence data” to Kiev continues as in the past.
The agreement awaits ratification by the Ukrainian parliament.
According to reports by multiple US outlets, Ukraine had dropped its stipulation that security guarantees be part of the deal after Washington rejected the idea.
In the months ahead of the signing, Trump had touted the agreement as a way for the US to recoup the money it has spent backing Ukraine in the current conflict, which, according to the president, totals some $350 billion. However, there is no repayment clause in the final agreement, meaning the deal only pertains to future military aid.
Trump has since said that Washington could “in theory” get “much more” than his $350 billion estimate from the deal.
The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Dmitry Medvedev, has pointed out that the US president essentially “forced the Kiev regime to pay for American aid,” with “the national wealth of a vanishing country.”
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