U.S. Government to Invest $75 Million in Ukraine’s Minerals

The U.S. government on Wednesday pledged $75 million to kick-start a landmark deal to invest in Ukraine’s vast mineral reserves, a commitment that will ease fears in Kyiv that the Trump administration is walking away from the war-torn country.

When an agreement this spring granted the United States a stake in Ukraine’s critical minerals, Kyiv cast it as a way to lock in American support through business ties. President Trump had made clear he would no longer give U.S. money to Ukraine for the war effort, leaving Kyiv scrambling to retain whatever American engagement it could.

Many observers doubted that the deal could draw U.S. investment while the fighting raged. But the new American pledge and a matching commitment by the Ukrainian government will bring a fund created under the agreement to $150 million.

“By deploying this initial capital, we aim to catalyze private-sector investments in Ukraine through the fund’s investments, to rebuild critical infrastructure, unlock nature resources and generate economic prosperity for the United States and Ukraine,” Conor Coleman, head of investments at the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation, or D.F.C., the government agency behind the investments, said in a statement.

The flow of U.S. government money into Ukraine’s minerals, hydrocarbons and related infrastructure could help reassure private investors and attract badly needed capital to sustain the country’s war economy.

It also shows the new mercantile nature of the U.S.-Ukrainian alliance under Mr. Trump. While the Biden administration spent tens of billions of dollars to aid Kyiv, Washington now focuses on opportunities to profit through investments and sales. It provides weapons to Ukraine only through purchases facilitated by a NATO-backed procurement system that uses European funds.

Aware of the U.S. president’s business-oriented mind-set, Kyiv hopes to give Mr. Trump a personal stake in Ukraine’s future through the mineral investment, especially as he has grown frustrated with his diplomatic efforts to end the war and hinted at possibly stepping back.

The U.S. investment “is a sign of trust and long-term commitment of our partners,” Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine’s prime minister, said in a statement. “American investments can be a guarantee of security both for Ukraine and for American business in Ukraine.”

While the fund is jointly owned by the United States and Ukraine, Washington retains some control over it. The D.F.C. was appointed to lead its board this month.

The $150 million investment announced on Wednesday will provide the fund’s initial capital, but most of its future contributions are expected to come from Kyiv. Under the deal, half of the revenues the Ukrainian government earns from extracting minerals and selling licenses will flow into the fund.

Profits will then be reinvested in Ukraine’s economy, with the United States also claiming a portion. Mr. Trump has portrayed the arrangement as repayment for past U.S. aid.

In an effort to push the deal forward, Kyiv has pitched Washington projects to exploit deposits of lithium, graphite and titanium, three minerals the United States has identified as critical for its economy and national security. The Kyiv School of Economics says Ukraine holds the largest titanium reserves in Europe and a third of Europe’s reserves of lithium, which is used to produce electric batteries.

Ukraine officially opened bidding for its first project on Friday, at the Dobra lithium field, one of the largest in Ukraine. TechMet, an energy investment firm partly owned by the U.S. government, has announced that it will make a bid. But the bidding could face a legal challenge, as Critical Metals Corporation, an American company, claims to hold the rights to mine the site.

In recent days, a D.F.C. delegation scouted other sites in central Ukraine that could become pilot projects., including a mining and processing plant and a deposit owned by Velta Holding, a titanium producer. Titanium is critical for producing aircraft and medical implants.

Industry analysts say the path to extracting Ukraine’s minerals is filled with challenges, including complex licensing procedures and outdated geological surveys that cloud the true value of Ukrainian subsoil.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is Russia’s continued advance on the battlefield.

In July, its troops seized a valuable lithium deposit in the eastern Donetsk region. Moscow’s forces, which already control vast mineral resources through their occupation of roughly a fifth of Ukraine, are also getting closer to deposits of titanium and uranium in eastern Ukraine.

Potential investors may also be unnerved by recent Russian airstrikes on or near Western assets, including an American factory in western Ukraine. Ukrainian officials and analysts have viewed the strikes as a warning from Moscow that the West’s assets may not be safe in Ukraine, and that the bloc should back off from investing in a country that Russia has long seen as its economic backyard.