Trump Team Reportedly Comes Back With ‘Improved’ Offer on ‘Rare Earths’

The US administration reportedly has delivered to President Volodymyr Zelensky a revised draft of the “rare earths” deal that has caused a rift in US-Ukraine relations this week.

Unnamed sources from both Ukraine and the US told Axios that the new proposal was “significantly improved” and “in conformity with Ukrainian law”.

Zelensky rejected the initial offer from US President Donald Trump to jointly mine minerals in Ukraine, telling visiting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent he was not going to sign something that the US ambassador had just dropped off at his office three hours prior. Bessent expected him to sign the deal immediately.

“Scott Bessent actually went there and was treated rather rudely because essentially they told him ‘no,’” Trump complained on Wednesday. “He came back empty. They wouldn’t sign the document.”

When Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance presented Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference last Friday with what was described by US officials as a “less-binding” agreement, Zelensky instructed them that such a deal requires the consent of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s legislature.

This detail apparently came as a surprise to Trump’s diplomatic team, who assumed a leader could sign away long-term rights to national resources without seeking the advice and consent of its lawmaking body.

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“That was news to us that Zelensky’s team never told us before that meeting,” a Trump administration official said. “It didn’t seem like it was in good faith.”

The latest iteration still retains the premise that the US would receive a 50 percent stake in minerals mined in Ukraine that are essential to manufacturing in the technology sector, as well as an even greater share of natural gas resources.

There are reportedly no clear guarantees in the language that Washington would provide Kyiv with security and military assistance in exchange. That has been a primary theme in Trump’s dealings with Zelensky, as US teams attempt to strike a deal with Russia to end its three-year invasion of Ukraine.

“This is a negotiation. And in a negotiation, you negotiate. Ukraine wants to negotiate minerals, so we’re talking about it,” a White House official told Axios. 

While the minerals-for-military exchange has not been framed as an explicit quid-pro-quo, it would be surprising if Thursday’s rumors that the US was halting weapons shipments to Ukraine, if true, were coincidental.

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One, the “deal-maker in chief” as Waltz called Trump at a press conference on Thursday, was fuming about Zelensky rejecting the previous offers out-of-hand.

“I think I’m gonna resurrect that deal, you know, we’ll see what happens, but I’m gonna resurrect it, or things are gonna not make [Zelensky] too happy.”

Sources told Axios that close advisers to Zelensky encouraged him to accept the deal.