US set to demand 50% of port revenues from Ukraine in fossil deal

As part of a renewed fossil agreement with Ukraine, the United States is demanding that Ukraine give up 50 percent of its revenues from ports and other infrastructure, The New York Times (NYT) wrote on February 22.

"The terms of the new proposal, dated Feb. 21 and reviewed by the NYT, call for Ukraine to give up half of its revenues from natural resources, including minerals, gas and oil, as well as revenues from ports and other infrastructure," the article stated.

The same demand was contained in the previous version of the deal, dated February 14. Four current and former Ukrainian officials, speaking about the terms of the new proposal, confirmed to the media that this point "remained unchanged".

It is noted that Kiev had raised the prospect of a partnership with Washington over its valuable natural resources in order to convince US President Donald Trump to provide additional support for its military actions, as well as security guarantees. The new document provides for neither.

"President Volodymyr Zelensky sought security guarantees for Ukraine, this condition was absent in the first draft of the agreement presented to him last week, which prompted him to refuse", the newspaper recalled.

US unwillingness to finance Ukraine and readiness to soften sanctions. What the media say

Earlier on February 22, Fox News journalist Nana Sajaya said that the Ukrainian side had made changes to the text of the agreement on minerals and handed them over to the USA, but the timeframe for further steps has not been determined yet. She also added that if the document is agreed, it will be signed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga.

British TV channel Sky News, citing a Ukrainian source, said that Zelensky was not ready to sign a rare earth metals deal with the United States because Kiev found "a number of problematic issues" in the draft agreement.

Trump said on February 21 that he had warned Ukraine of problems if it refused to sign a rare earth minerals deal. Later, the head of state expressed doubts about Kiev's availability of resources.