(April 10): Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said any minerals agreement with the US can’t hurt his country’s aspirations to join the European Union (EU), as Kyiv dispatches a team to Washington for talks this week.

“This is the number one red line which we communicate to all of our partners,” Shmyhal said in a Bloomberg Television interview with Oliver Crook in Brussels on Thursday. 

Ukraine will send a special technical working group to Washington “no later than tomorrow”, Shmyhal said, for talks on a deal governing post-war plans to exploit the country’s mineral deposits and rebuild its infrastructure. Kyiv seeks a larger US investment as part of any agreement, amid concerns that giving Washington vast privileges could complicate its bid to join the EU. 

“We will continue these consultations, and we will look in for the best solution,” the prime minister said, adding that the talks will take place next week. “So this agreement can’t hurt our European aspirations, and can’t hurt our association agreement with EU.”

US President Donald Trump is pushing Kyiv for an agreement to share future profits from Ukrainian minerals, which he sees as compensation for the tens of billions of dollars in assistance given to the nation since Russia launched its full-scale invasion more than three years ago. 

That deal could require Ukraine to give the US half of its future revenue from a significant portion of its economy, but Kyiv is seeking better terms and refusing to recognise past US aid as debt. 

“I think it will take some time, but we are very intensively cooperating with the US,” he said. “Our technical specialists, our lawyers will go to the US for very concrete negotiations in person,” he said.

With talks on the economic deal approaching, Ukraine has been under almost daily Russian air strikes, putting in question Moscow’s commitment to stick to the terms of a partial ceasefire brokered by the US last month.

Shmyhal said there were “no clear signals” from Russia on the next stage of talks, and expressed hope that the US administration will pressure the Kremlin to come back to the negotiating table. Trump has expressed growing frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foot-dragging over talks to halt the war, which he has promised to deliver within 100 days of taking the office.

“We hope that our American partners will push them or will implement a sanctions policy much, much stronger, much tougher than the existing” one, Shmyhal said.

The prime minister is in Brussels for talks with EU officials as Ukraine seeks to move forward with its accession process. It is structured into six “clusters” of laws and standards, which Kyiv must implement before the European Commission can consider its membership of the bloc. 

Ukraine hopes to start talks on all of them, Shmyhal said, with three clusters in the first half of the year and three in the second half.

Shmyhal said he is sure Ukraine and the EU would find solutions to difficulties in the process, including Hungary, which has close ties to Russia and has attempted to block the opening of any of the clusters.

The prime minister hopes Brussels will extend favourable trade terms for the export of Ukrainian goods, which were implemented by the EU after Russia’s full-scale invasion and which expire in June. 

Kyiv raised the issue with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other commissioners, and has agreed to hold consultations with Brussels in coming weeks on special measures for Ukrainian businesses.

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