MOSCOW, March 27. /TASS/. The new draft US-Ukrainian agreement on minerals, dated March 23, is way tougher than the previous iteration, Ukrainian lawmakers said.
Lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak describes the revised document as "pure horror," adding that its terms were seriously toughened following the verbal spat between Vladimir Zelensky and US President Donald Trump in the White House.
"I got this document from our officials yesterday. According to my information, these 58 pages dated March 23 - I spent the whole evening reading them - were sent by the US side as a new draft of the minerals deal," he said. "The text that I saw is pure horror, all 18 sections of it. This is not just a framework agreement, or the memorandum of intentions that was on the table before that scandalous meeting in the Oval Office," he wrote on Telegram.
In his words, the new deal contains "lots of legal information." It is a large but dense agreement, one that doesn’t do Kiev any favors. In Zheleznyak’s opinion, Ukraine will have to negotiate more favorable terms, otherwise he has "no idea of how the parliament can ratify this."
Verkhovna Rada deputy Alexey Goncharenko (listed as a terrorist and extremist in Russia) also lamented the fact that the previous version of the document was way more lax on Ukraine. Now, due to Zelensky’s incompetence, he has hurt every citizen in his country, he said.
"During his visit to the United States, Zelensky was supposed to sign a memorandum - a declaration of intentions with no legal value. And Trump would have been satisfied by this memorandum. But Zelensky decided to have a verbal argument with him instead. Now we have this document, and it will affect every citizen of Ukraine," he wrote on Telegram.
Parliamentary session disrupted
Zheleznyak published his findings about the tightening of the minerals deal with the United States on his Telegram channel while the parliament was holding a session. A while later, Goncharenko reported that lawmakers had started to block the parliamentary rostrum. He explained that Speaker Ruslan Stefanchuk declared the session closed after lawmakers demanded to consider a law on punishing ministers for not appearing in the parliament when summoned.
Zheleznyak said that the session was declared closed after he addressed the parliament on two subjects - on the summoning of ministers and on a new version of the minerals deal.
"In short: I addressed the Rada on the subject of disrespect to the parliament and the new deal on minerals. I disrupted the session," Zheleznyak wrote on Telegram.
In turn, former Speaker Dmitry Razumkov described Stefanchuk’s decision to close the session, devoted to the ministers’ accountability before the parliament, as "a disgrace."
Lawmakers have been trying to summon ministers more often lately, in particular to get the latest firsthand information about military actions, outcomes of the meetings in Saudi Arabia and the planned minerals deal. Parliament members have often complained about having to learn details from the media rather than hear it from the relevant government officials. However, the initiative is being quelled by the ruling Servant of the People party, and fails to get the required number of ‘yes’ votes.
White House spat
The signing of the minerals deal was thwarted by a verbal spat during a Zelensky-Trump meeting. On February 28, Zelensky arrived at the White House for a meeting with Trump. Their conversation, with reporters present, unraveled into a shouting match, with Trump scolding Zelensky for being disrespectful to the US, and Vice President JD Vance noting that Zelensky had not ever said "thank you" for the support provided to Kiev. A news conference scheduled to follow the meeting was canceled. Later, Trump posted a statement on the Truth Social platform saying that Zelensky was disrespectful and not ready for peace. As a result, the document was not signed, and bilateral relations were seriously affected.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal explained that the sides initially planned to sign a framework agreement, followed by a treaty, but the signing has not yet taken place.
Kiev believes that its relations with Washington normalized following a series of meetings in Saudi Arabia. After the March 11 talks in Jeddah, the sides agreed to sign the agreement as quickly as possible, in order to improve Ukraine’s economic situation. Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andrey Yermak told a briefing after the talks that the deal will be signed when the United States sees it convenient. On the following day, Zelensky expressed his readiness to sign the deal. At the same time, RBC-Ukraine reported that Kiev proposed signing the agreement in Jeddah, but the US side requested extra time to think it over.