Trump demands control of Ukraine minerals and oil

In a new draft deal, Donald Trump demands Ukraine forfeit control of its minerals, oil and gas as well as major energy infrastructure as the price for continued US support.

President Trump has demanded Ukraine forfeit control of its minerals, oil and gas as the price for continued US support.

A draft deal suggests the US president has hardened his demands as he seeks to extract a greater share of Ukraine’s mineral wealth in exchange for American weapons.

Ukrainian officials baulked at the revised deal, with one saying it amounted to “robbery”.

The deal, first reported by the Financial Times, proposes transferring all of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including oil and gas, as well as major Ukrainian energy infrastructure into a joint investment fund. The income would be split between the US and Ukraine. The US would appoint three of the five board members, giving the White House overall control of the fund.

The draft deal emerged after Sir Keir Starmer announced that British military chiefs will soon travel to Ukraine to finalise plans for an international peacekeeping mission.

Speaking in Paris, the prime minister vowed to increase sanctions on Russia as he accused President Putin of “playing games” and demanded that Trump set a deadline for Russia to observe a ceasefire deal in Ukraine.

Starmer also revealed the next steps that would be taken by the so-called coalition of the willing to help secure peace in Ukraine after a ceasefire deal.

He said: “The UK, French and German chiefs of defence will meet in Ukraine with their counterparts to take forward, as it were with Ukraine, how those plans or options are going to be implemented.”

Starmer added that MPs would have a say on any long-term military plans for Ukraine. He said it was too early to discuss a vote but “if we were to deploy in any scenario on a long-term basis, then of course, parliament should have a say in that”.

Hosting the Paris summit, President Macron admitted that some countries participating in the “coalition of the willing” would not send troops to Ukraine but said “we do not need unanimity”. The French president said the composition of the reassurance force would be finalised in “three to four weeks”.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer (L) and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky after a meeting at the British embassy on the sideline of a summit for "coalition of the willing" in Paris. Picture: AFP.

European allies of Ukraine have grown increasingly sceptical of Trump’s efforts to force through a ceasefire deal after further Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports and energy infrastructure.

Supposedly, Moscow and Kyiv have agreed a truce in the Black Sea as well as an end to attacks on energy infrastructure. However, after a meeting between US and Russian negotiators in Saudi Arabia earlier this week, Putin issued a fresh set of demands. The Kremlin has insisted that Europe must lift sanctions on Rosselkhozbank, the Russian state agricultural bank, and restore its access to the Swift international payment system headquartered in Brussels, before the ceasefire can begin.

Following that summit in Riyadh, British officials were left dismayed by a US statement promising to “help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertiliser exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions”.

“There is no hiding the fact that the US is taking a different approach to us,” one government source said.

Starmer criticised Putin for introducing new conditions and accused the Russian president of “filibustering”. “They are playing games and playing for time. It is a classic from the Putin playbook. But we can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion,” the prime minister said.

Starmer urged Trump to set a deadline in “days and weeks, not months and months” and said “we should hold them to that deadline”.

In an apparent warning to the White House, the prime minister said “now is not the time for pulling back or weakening on sanctions. On the contrary, now is the time for increasing sanctions on Russia to get them to the table.”

Zelensky said there should be “no lifting any kind of sanctions until Russia will stop this war”.

The EU has banned 23 Russian and four Belarusian banks from using the Swift international payment system. The sanctions were introduced in 2022.

The system sends trillions of dollars every day through 11,000 banks and institutions in more than 200 countries. The system, jointly owned by more than 2,000 banks and financial institutions, is headquartered outside Brussels and overseen by the National Bank of Belgium, meaning any decision to readmit a Russian bank would likely need the approval of the EU.

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Starmer said that any ceasefire deal would need to avoid the mistakes of the past as he pointed to the failure of the Minsk agreements signed after the Russian invasion of Crimea in 2014.

He said: “I don’t doubt that Russia doesn’t want the deal defended, because an undefended deal is in their interest. That’s what happened last time [Minsk]. Look what they did.”

In contrast to Macron’s description of a “pacifist” force, Starmer said international peacekeeping troops would need to show “deterrence”.

“This is a force designed to deter, in order to send that message to Putin that this is a deal that is going to be defended,” he said. The summit in Paris, the fourth meeting of the coalition, was attended by 30 countries as well as representatives of NATO and the EU.

The Times