Zelenskyy: U.S. "constantly" changing terms of minerals deal
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the final version of the updated agreement with the United States on rare earth resources is not yet available, so it is too early to talk about signing the agreement.
He said this at a briefing following the summit of the "coalition of the willing," Censor.NET reports.
"The conditions are constantly changing. It seems that we have already agreed that there will be a framework agreement, and then a full agreement. Now the US is proposing to sign a full agreement at once. This requires a detailed study... I did not want the US to get the impression that we are against it. We are in favor of cooperation and do not want the United States to stop providing assistance or intelligence," the President explained.
Zelenskyy noted that at first, lawyers worked "on one agreement, then on another, and finally agreed on a framework agreement."
"We are acting with restraint, we are not nervous, we want to see the agreement. It's too early to talk about the conclusion. Lawyers will study it. We will support adequate proposals. If there are questions, there are always answers. It is important that Ukraine cooperates with the United States, so we act constructively every day," the president said, adding that he was not going to go to Washington for now because "there is no such issue on the agenda."
Earlier, Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a Voice People's Deputy and deputy chairman of the Verkhovna Rada's Tax Committee, said that the United States had handed Ukraine a new draft agreement on minerals that must be ratified by the Verkhovna Rada.
In his opinion, this option is unfavorable for Ukraine.
