Minerals deal boosts Ukraine aid prospects

UKRAINE AGREED TO HAND OVER half of its future oil, gas, and mineral wealth to the U.S. in a landmark deal signed April 30.

- BRIAN BENNETT, NIK POPLI, and SIMON SHUSTER

While the agreement does not offer Ukraine the explicit security guarantees it had long sought, it does, in effect, give President Donald Trump and his allies a tangible, economic rationale for maintaining U.S. aid. The terms, which include Ukraine's paying for U.S. military assistance from a new resources fund, dissolved weeks of tension between the inner circles of Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, after a heated Oval Office exchange in February.