Media: US tightened conditions of deal with Ukraine

The USA and Ukraine continue to discuss signing a deal on natural resources. Washington will offer Kyiv a draft document with stricter conditions than before.

This is reported by "RBC-Ukraine" with reference to The New York Times.

Today, April 11, technical negotiations on the natural resources deal between Ukrainian and American delegations begin in Washington. The Ukrainian delegation is headed by Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy responsible for trade. It includes representatives from the ministries of economy and justice.

According to the NYT, the US has prepared a new proposal for Ukraine that revives US President Donald Trump's requirement that Ukraine return billions to America for military and economic aid.

In particular, as before, it stipulates that Ukraine will have to contribute half of its income from natural resource extraction projects - critical minerals, oil and gas - to an investment fund that will be controlled by the US.

It is planned that profits from this fund will be reinvested in Ukrainian natural resource extraction projects.

Also, the new draft agreement does not contain any mention of security guarantees for Ukraine, which does not meet Kyiv's requirements.

As the publication writes, the draft agreement contains stricter conditions for Ukraine. The document stipulates that the US will claim all profits from the fund until Kyiv "reimburses at least the equivalent of American aid received during the war, plus an annual 4%."

The US also wants to obtain "right of first offer" for new projects and the right to veto the sale of Ukrainian resources to third countries as part of the deal. At the same time, in the first year of the agreement, Ukraine is planned to be prohibited from offering investment projects to third parties on more favorable financial or economic terms than those offered by Washington.

The US also plans for the fund to be controlled by the International Development Finance Corporation - a US government agency responsible for investing in companies and projects abroad. The agency will be able to appoint three members of the board of directors, while Ukraine - only two. It will also control every project in which the fund's money is invested.

Unnamed Ukrainian officials told the NYT that they view these conditions as an offer to start further negotiations.