Ukraine has agreed on the terms of a minerals deal with the United States and could sign it as early as Friday on a trip to Washington by president Volodymyr Zelensky, a senior Ukrainian official said.
US president Donald Trump had demanded that Ukraine give access to its rare earth minerals to compensate for the billions of dollars worth of wartime aid it received under Joe Biden.
The deal would see the United States jointly develop Ukraine鈥檚 mineral wealth, with revenues going to a newly created fund that would be 鈥榡oint for Ukraine and America鈥�, a senior Ukrainian source said.
鈥楴ow government officials are working on the details As of now, we are considering a visit to Washington for Friday to sign the agreement,鈥� the source added.
Ukraine had asked for security guarantees from the US as part of any agreement.
The source said the draft of the deal includes a reference to 鈥榮ecurity鈥�, but does not explicitly set out the United States鈥檚 role.
鈥楾here is a general clause that says America will invest in a stable and prosperous sovereign Ukraine, that it works for a lasting peace, and that America supports efforts to guarantee security.鈥�
The source also said Washington had cut clauses that would have been unfavourable to Ukraine, including that it provide 鈥�$500 billion鈥� worth of resources.
Meanwhile, Ukraine said that Russian strikes on a front-line town in the east of the country killed at least five people and wounded eight more just hours after a fatal drone attack near Kyiv.
The large-scale Russian drone barrage overnight killed two people near Kyiv, including a Ukrainian journalist, her news agency said.
AFP journalists in Kyiv heard explosions ringing out after the Ukrainian air force said Russia fired a barrage of 177 drones of various types at targets across the country.
Russian forces have been clawing their way towards the town of Kostyantynivka and intensively bombarding the civilian hub in the eastern Donetsk region, which the Kremlin claims is part of Russia.
鈥楢t least five people were killed and eight were wounded in the strikes on Kostyantynivka,鈥� the governor of the Donetsk region Vadim Filashkin wrote on social media.
The strikes attest to the increasingly difficult fighting for Ukrainian forces that are facing down a better-resourced and large Russian army across the sprawling front line.
The attack on Kostyantynivka, which had an estimated pre-war population of around 67,000 people, came after Russia launched dozens of drones overnight in an aerial assault that damaged Ukrainian energy facilities and killed two people near the Ukrainian capital.
The Ukrinform news agency announced Wednesday afternoon that its journalist Tetiana Kulyk was among those killed in the attack.
鈥楬er untimely death has shocked her colleagues and is a huge loss for the agency,鈥� the agency said in a statement.
Ukrainian troops said Wednesday they had launched a successful counterattack in the eastern Donetsk region, gaining control over the village of Kotlyne near a key transit artery and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.
Fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces near the rail and mining hub of Pokrovsk is some of the fiercest of the invasion launched by the Kremlin in February 2022.
鈥楾aking this settlement would have allowed the occupiers to reach the Pokrovsk-Dnipro highway, so the enemy sent significant forces to capture it,鈥� the Ukrainian unit involved in the operation posted on social media.
