Ukraine will next week send a high-level team to Washington to negotiate a potential deal allowing the United States to access its crucial mineral resources, Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko disclosed in an interview with The Associated Press on Saturday.
Svyrydenko said the forthcoming talks would be based on a suggested US-Ukraine framework that may involve shared investments or the creation of a strategic resource fund. The Ukrainian delegation will include representatives from Ukraine’s Ministries of Economy, Foreign Affairs, Justice, and Finance. Negotiations have been going on for months and suffered a setback in February following a tense Oval Office meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as Vice President JD Vance.
Ukraine has enormous deposits of more than 20 minerals crucial to US national security, such as titanium, lithium, and uranium critical for aerospace, battery, and nuclear industries respectively.
Russian state media, meanwhile, stated that top Kremlin diplomat Kirill Dmitriev can go back to Washington for fresh US-Russia negotiations as soon as next week the most senior trip since the war started.
In Kyiv, Zelenskyy greeted UK Defence Chief Tony Radakin and French General Thierry Burkhard on Friday, praising “tangible progress” on an agreement to deploy a multinational peacekeeping force after a future ceasefire. Zelenskyy announced initial deals on the framework and possible deployment of this security contingent.
On Sunday, Zelenskyy denounced America for silence following Russia’s dismissal of an unconditional ceasefire that had been offered and was accepted by Ukraine. Russia, in a nighttime raid, made a countrywide missile and drone attack, killing two people and wounding seven. Moscow also reported that it had captured the border village of Basivka in the Ukrainian Sumy region a report yet to be confirmed by Kyiv.
The deteriorating violence highlights persistent diplomatic ambiguity and combat unpredictability.