US says that agreement with Ukraine on subsoil could be signed next week

The White House expects that Ukraine and the US will sign an agreement on Ukrainian minerals already this week.

This was stated by the US Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, Voice of America reports.

"I expect that the agreement will be signed this week," Witkoff said on Sunday in a comment to CNN.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected the US-proposed agreement on subsoil, saying that it did not contain security guarantees for Ukraine. Details of the agreement have not yet been disclosed.

Witkoff, who participated in a meeting of the American and russian delegations in Saudi Arabia last week, said on Sunday that although President Zelenskyy hesitated about the agreement last week, he "is no longer hesitant and there is a reason for this - we have done a lot and this agreement needs to be signed and, I think, it will be signed this week."

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the head of the President's Office, Andrii Yermak, said regarding the agreement with the US on Ukrainian minerals that a normal working process is underway, it could last months.

On February 19, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, regarding 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 what is listed in the document. Zelenskyy also stated that the agreement on Ukrainian rare earth minerals should contain security guarantees from the US.

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