President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the draft agreement on Ukrainian rare earth minerals, which was transferred to Ukraine by the US and which he refused to sign, noted that the document was clear only in that Ukraine must give 50% of the listed in the document.
Zelenskyy said this at a press conference, Ukrainian News Agency reports.
"The document was not clear. It is clear only in one thing: we must give 50% of everything that is there, listed in the document. By the way, we are not afraid of this and I am ready for the publicity of this document," Zelenskyy said.
He added that he told the American side that he did not consider this document ready for signing, because it does not talk about security guarantees for Ukraine.
"If there is nothing clear there, I said, let's write percentages. That was my proposal... I said: OK, let's make it positive. You write some guarantees, and we will write some percentages in the memorandum. They told me only 50. I said: OK, no. And then let the lawyers continue working. So they haven't finalized something," he said.
Regarding security guarantees for Ukraine, Zelenskyy noted that everyone understands that Ukraine is in a situation where there are not many formats of security guarantees: NATO or a million-strong Ukrainian army, its financing, weapons for it, air defense and a contingent from those countries that want and are able to stand in Ukraine for some time, in particular on the border and on the contact lines.
Zelenskyy stressed that Ukraine wants security guarantees this year and to end the war this year and is ready for dialogue and discussions.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Vice Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olha Stefanishyna said that Ukraine has not rejected the US offer for access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals, the agreement is still being discussed.
Earlier, Zelenskyy stated that the agreement on Ukrainian rare earth minerals should contain security guarantees from the US.
The agreement on US access to resource deposits in Ukraine in exchange for US military assistance was discussed with Zelenskyy on February 12 by US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent during his visit to Kyiv.
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