Ukraine will not accept a minerals agreement with the United States that would jeopardize its accession to the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday.
“The Constitution of Ukraine clearly states that our course is towards the EU … There are very important reforms and corresponding steps,” Zelenskyy told a press conference in Kyiv Friday evening.
“Nothing that could endanger … Ukraine’s accession to the EU can be accepted,” he said.
His comments come after Bloomberg and the Financial Times reported on Washington’s latest minerals offer to Kyiv, which would grant the United States access to Ukraine’s oil, gas and minerals through a joint investment fund that would split the revenue of those projects between the two countries.
The Ukrainian president confirmed that Kyiv had officially received a new draft of the proposed deal from Washington, which included “many new provisions that were not previously discussed,” as well as “some aspects that had already been rejected by both sides,” according to Ukrainian media.
The European Commission will make an assessment of the text, which could grant a preferential treatment to American companies, once there is a “concrete agreement with letters black on white,” Paula Pinho, the Commission’s chief spokesperson, said on Friday.
“Such an agreement would need to be looked into from the perspective of the relations between Ukraine and the EU and, notably, in terms of the accession negotiations,” Pinho added.
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