US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Ukraine Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svydyrenko sign agreements on minerals and rare earths, Washington, D.C., April 30, 2025

EA on Times Radio, Australia’s ABC, and France 24 English: Ukraine — Putin on the Defensive

Wednesday’s Coverage: Putin Rebuffs Trump by Demanding Full Control of 4 Regions

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1734 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has commented on the minerals deal with the US.

The agreement has changed significantly during the preparation process. It is now truly an equal partnership — one that creates opportunities for substantial investment in Ukraine, as well as significant modernization of Ukraine’s industries and, equally importantly, its legal practices.

UPDATE 1146 GMT:

Following Russia’s deadly drone attack on Odesa city (see 0636 GMT), Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has posted:

That is why a strong push for diplomacy is needed — continued pressure on Russia is essential to force it into silence and negotiations. The more effective the sanctions, the more incentives Russia will have to end the war. The stronger Ukraine’s defense and our Air Defense Forces are, the more lives we will be able to save — and the sooner we will be able to guarantee lasting security.

UPDATE 1142 GMT:

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has spoken with European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas about the Ukraine-EU agenda following the minerals deal signed with the US.

In addition to the two slain and 15 injured in Odesa, casualties were reported in the Kharkiv region, where eight children were among 13 wounded from 28 attack drones and 20 aerial bombs; the Kherson region; Dnipropetrovsk; and Donetsk.

UPDATE 0837 GMT:

An international investigation details the inhumane conditions and abuse and killing of Ukrainian civilians and combatants at prisons such as the pre-trial detention center in Taganrog in southern Ukraine.

The Sizo Number 2 prison held juveniles and mothers with young mothers before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. It was then repurposed as a torture center.

The Ukrainian Parliament’s commissioner for human rights, Dmytro Lubinets, says that as of April 2024 the registered number of “disappeared” civilians is 16,000. The majority have not been charged with any crime and their locations, in up to as many as 180 sites, are undisclosed.

The investigation identified the systematic use of torture at 29 sites, 18 in Russia and 11 in Russian-occupied territories. Authorities administer electric shocks, waterboarding, mock executions, blows with wooden and metal hammers, and repeated beatings on the same body part. Bizarre humiliations include detainees tied up with tape and sat on as “human furniture”. There is a ban on speaking Ukrainian, severe food rationing, and encouragement to commit suicide.

The findings are detailed in the Viktoriia project, an investigation over six months involving 13 media outlets led by the French group Forbidden Stories.

The project is named for the Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died from torture after spending months in Taganrog (see Wednesday’s coverage). it draws on more than 50 interviews with survivors and with families of detainees. Prison officials who resigned in distress have provided information.

The UN’s special rapporteur on torture, Alice Edwards, summarizes:

It is clear to me that torture is part of the Russian war policy and apparatus, both of Ukrainian civilians as well as of captured prisoners of war. It’s being applied across all regions occupied by the Russian Federation, in all types of detention facilities. That level of organisation can only be approved at the highest levels.

UPDATE 0826 GMT:

The Trump Administration is lifting its pause on delivery of military aid to Ukraine.

On Wednesday, the Administration informed Congress of its intention to allow the export of defense-related products through direct commercial sales of $50 million or more.

In its most recent aid package for Ukraine, Congress approved more than $1 billion worth of DCS-related sales. The Biden Administration used the authorization to transfer much-needed weapons, such as fully automatic .50 caliber machine guns.

UPDATE 0646 GMT:

Donald Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, has put the onus on Vladimir Putin to accept a ceasefire halting Russia’s invasion.

Kellogg told Fox TV on Wednesday of his meeting with Ukrainian officials in London last week:

We had 22 concrete terms that [Ukraine[ agreed to….What they have is a very comprehensive and permanent ceasefire that leads to a peace treaty….sea, air, land infrastructure [ceasefire] for at least 30 days.

He continued, “If [Putin] really wants to stop the killing, if he wants this war to end, there is a pathway to do it that has been presented to him.”

The envoy said, “The Ukrainians have already said they’re willing to give up the land…not de jure, forever, but de facto because the Russians actually occupy it….That’s what they’re willing to go to, they told me that last week.”

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

Two civilians have been killed and 15 injured by a Russian drone attack on Odesa city in southern Ukraine.

The attack set fires and damaged residential buildings, a school, a supermarket, and cars.

Russia launched five ballistic missiles and 170 drones overnight. Air defenses downed 74 UAVs, and 68 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Kyiv and the Trump Administration have signed an agreement for 50-50 control of a US-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, financed by the future sale of Ukrainian minerals and rare earths.

The text affirms a “long-term strategic alignment” between the two countries and US “support for Ukraine’s security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks”.

Read Full Text

Ukraine First Deputy Minister and Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko confirmed:

Sydyrenko added that Ukraine will retain full ownership of resources “on our territory and in territorial waters belong to Ukraine”: “It is the Ukrainian state that determines where and what to extract.”

Noting that income will come from new licences, not from projects which have already begun, she said contributions to the fund will not be taxed in the US or Ukraine “to make investments yield the greatest results”.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said the US and Ukraine will have equal voting rights. The fund relates only to new investments, so Kyiv will not have to use it for repayment of aid from the Biden Administration during Russia’s full-scale invasion.

He hailed “truly a good, equal and beneficial international agreement on joint investments in the development and recovery of Ukraine”.”

The deal will now go to the Ukrainian Parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, for ratification.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a statement:

This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign, and prosperous Ukraine over the long term.

President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine. And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine.

A Step Towards A Security Guarantee?

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has linked the deal to a US security guarantee deterring another Russian invasion.

The Trump Administration had held out against this, with Vice President J.D. Vance and then Donald Trump ambushing Zelensky in a White House meeting on February 28.

But on Wednesday Trump indicated a connection between the

deal and Ukraine’s security. He said at a Cabinet meeting, “The American presence will, I think, keep a lot of bad actors out of the country or certainly out of the area where we’re doing the digging.”

Asked in a later interview whether the minerals deal was going to “inhibit” Vladimir Putin, Trump said, “Well, it could.”

Trump also hinted that he had dropped his long-running demand for the minerals sales to “repay” the US for past assistance maintaining Ukraine’s resistance.

“Biden handed them $350 billion,” he blustered. “We made a deal where we get much more in theory than the $350 billion.”

Sydyrenko wrote, “In addition to direct financial contributions, ma US]y also provide new assistance – for example air defense systems for Ukraine.”

Confirmation of the deal was briefly held up on Wednesday by a Trump Administration demand that Ukraine also sign two supplementary agreements, reportedly on an investment fund and a technical document. Kyiv asked for further work on the documents.

A US official declared that Svyrydenko, en route to Washington, should “be ready to sign all agreements, or go back home”.

Bessent later said the US was ready to sign though Ukraine had made last-minute changes.