‘Pay Us First, and Then Feed Your Children’ – Details of US Security Offer to Ukraine Leaked

The rare earth proposal presented by US officials to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would have signed away about half of Ukraine’s wealth in exchange for very little, including no security guarantees, according to a leaked copy of the document. 

The draft deal includes sections on Ukraine’s infrastructure and gas resources – including a far higher cut of Ukraine’s resources than the rare earth elements he began expressing an interest in two weeks ago, as first reported by The Telegraph on Monday.

Zelensky was also reportedly pressured to sign the agreement during the Munich Security Conference if he wanted to be granted an already promised face-to-face meeting with US Vice President J.D. Vance, although the meeting went ahead without the deal being sealed anyway.

Beyond rare earth minerals

Reporters at The Telegraph claimed to have obtained a copy of the draft agreement that stipulates resources far beyond rare earth minerals, including “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed).”

Under the proposal, the US will take 50% of the money Ukraine earns from mining its resources and 50% of the value of any new licenses Ukraine gives to other companies to mine in the future via “the establishment of a Reconstruction Investment Fund,” with “a lien on such revenues” in favor of the US, The Telegraph reported.

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An unnamed source reportedly close to the negotiations told The Telegraph that it essentially translates to: “Pay us first, and then feed your children.”

Under the agreement, the US “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licenses and projects, which The Telegraph said indicated that it was drafted by a private law firm, not the US departments of state or commerce.

“Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy,” The Telegraph wrote in its report.

The financial sum was not stipulated in the proposal, and it is still unclear where US President Donald Trump’s $500 billion figure came from. The document also hinted that the revenue is perceived as a repayment for past US aid:

“WHEREAS the United States of America has provided significant financial and material support to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022;” reads the beginning of the document.

For context, an official US auditing institution says US aid to Ukraine, as of September 2024, amounts to approximately $183 billion.

The proposal was reportedly marked as “Privileged & Confidential’ and dated Feb. 7, 2025. Kyiv Post cannot verify the authenticity of the alleged document.

Part of the proposal’s goal is to ensure “hostile parties to the conflict do not benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine,” the document says, without providing concrete clauses on how to enforce that security.

In short, it was a one-sided agreement.

Pressuring Zelensky to sign 

Ukrainian news outlet European Prava, citing “Ukrainian and American sources,” said Zelensky was pressured to sign the document in order to have an audience with Vance, which ultimately took place without Zelensky signing the agreement.

Zelensky was presented with the draft a few days prior to the planned meeting with Vance, and the sources said Zelensky intended to submit a revised version and discuss it with Vance, to which the US parties effectively said no.

“According to one of the sources, after Ukraine, in search of a compromise, handed over a revised version of the agreement to the Americans, they responded by canceling all key amendments and, in essence, putting Ukraine before the condition – either sign what we gave, or nothing,” European Pravda reported.

Zelensky later said at a press conference in Munich that part of the reason it was not signed was the lack of clear security guarantees.

“This [agreement] is about investments. And you can think about how you can distribute profits when the security guarantees are clear. So far, I haven’t seen that there,” he said.

The talks with Vance eventually took place, with Zelensky later publishing a Telegram update, calling them a “good meeting.”

Zelensky said they would continue work on the document and thanked the US administration for its support.

“Our teams will continue to work on the document. We discussed many key issues and look forward to General [Keith] Kellogg [Trump’s special envoy] in Ukraine for further meetings and a deeper assessment of the situation on the ground,” he said in the update.