Russia-Ukraine ceasefire: Zelensky wary of US deal, says framework has changed, aid wasn't a loan

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would not accept any mineral rights deal that threatened its integration with the EU but said it was too early to pass judgement on a dramatically expanded minerals deal proposed by Washington.

The Ukrainian leader told reporters that Kyiv’s lawyers needed to review the draft before he could say more about the US offer, a summary of which suggested the US was demanding all Ukraine’s natural resources income for years.

He also said Kyiv would not recognise billions of dollars of past US aid as loans, though he did not say whether such a demand featured in the latest draft version received by a top government official.

Mr Zelensky did say, however, that the text was “entirely different” from an earlier framework agreement that he had been set to sign with US President Donald Trump before their talks descended into acrimony last month.

“The framework has been changed. Let us study this framework and then we can talk,” he told a news conference in Kyiv.

The latest US proposal would require Kyiv to send Washington all profit from a fund controlling Ukrainian resources until Ukraine had repaid all American wartime aid, plus interest, according to a summary reviewed by Reuters.

Mr Zelensky, who has repeatedly emphasised the need for strong relations with the White House, appeared to be alluding to this last element when he said Kyiv did not view past assistance as something that now needed to be repaid.

Navigating an acceptable path forward on issues like this is a major challenge for Mr Zelensky whose rift with Mr Trump last month saw Washington cut off flows of previously agreed military assistance and stop intelligence sharing.

It is also a highly sensitive diplomatic juncture with Mr Trump trying to rapidly end the fighting with Russia, while reorienting Washington’s policy towards endorsing Moscow’s narrative about its three-year-old war in Ukraine.

Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told MPs that Kyiv would issue its position on the new draft only once there was consensus. Until then, public discussion would be harmful, she said.

Another Ukrainian source described the full document presented by the Americans as “huge”.

Mr Zelensky has repeatedly said he accepts the idea of signing a mutually-beneficial minerals deal with the United States, although he would not sign an agreement that would impoverish his country.

According to the summary, it stipulates that Washington is given first rights to purchase extracted resources and recoup all the money it has given Ukraine since 2022, plus interest at a four per cent annual rate, before Ukraine begins to gain access to the fund’s profits.

Ukraine’s 2024 budget revenues included, among other things, $US1.2 billion ($A1.9 billion) of rent payments for the use of subsurface resources, $US1.8 billion ($A2.9 billion) in dividends and other payments from the state share in state-owned companies, and $US19.4 billion ($A30.9 billion) from profits at state-owned companies, finance ministry data showed.

An earlier version of the deal, which Ukraine agreed to in principle before Mr Zelensky visited the White House last month, had terms that appeared more favourable to Ukraine. It proposed a joint investment fund with Ukraine contributing 50 per cent of proceeds from future profits of state-owned natural resources.

Kyiv said that previous version had been only a framework deal that would lay the ground for a more detailed deal that would have to be agreed later.

Mr Zelensky’s visit on February 28 ended with Mr Trump berating him in the Oval Office, later followed by several days during which Washington suspended all intelligence support and military aid to Ukraine.

Since then, Mr Zelensky has trodden carefully, repeatedly thanking the United States for support.

Earlier this month Ukraine agreed to a US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, even though this was rejected by Russia.

Last week, Ukraine and Russia both agreed to pause attacks on energy infrastructure and at sea, but Moscow demanded international sanctions be eased before it accepted the maritime truce.