After a week of pointed criticism from both sides, it appears a mineral rights deal between the United States and Ukraine is back on the table. As RedState reported, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky previously scoffed at a deal, with President Donald Trump responding by calling him a "dictator." On Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio explained that Zelensky had pulled the rug out from under them, seeming excited to make a deal in private before saying something completely different to the press. 

SEE: Marco Rubio Reveals Why the Administration Is So Ticked At Zelensky 

According to Bloomberg, those differences have been ironed out and a deal is close to being finalized. What's exactly being promised by both sides remains a bit of a mystery, though. Ukrainian Minister of Justice Olga Stefanishyna, who also holds the role of managing European and Euro-Atlantic affairs for the country, made this post on Monday.

Ukrainian and U.S. teams are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement. The negotiations have been very constructive, with nearly all key details finalized. We are committed to completing this swiftly to proceed with its signature. We hope both US and…

— Olga Stefanishyna (@StefanishynaO) February 24, 2025

Part of the agreement will be a fund that uses mineral resource extraction as a way to pay back the United States for its large financial investment in Ukraine. Zelensky said on Sunday that the number for repayment stands at around $90 billion, which would fall far short of total expenditures. 

The US will commit to a “free, sovereign and secure” Ukraine and a “lasting peace” as part of the deal, a draft text seen by Bloomberg showed. It will also agree to a “durable partnership” between Washington and Kyiv and signal an intent to invest in Ukraine, the text said.

The US will also say that those who acted adversely to Ukraine in the war should not benefit from its reconstruction. The text of the agreement wasn’t finalized and could still change, a person familiar with the matter said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told reporters on Sunday that the US dropped its demand for Kyiv to commit to paying $500 billion from resource extraction to a fund as a form of repayment for US aid. Zelenskiy disputed the figure, saying it was closer to $90 billion and insisted that US military support must be part of any deal.

As to what security guarantees will exist, that's also murky. Zelensky has insisted that security guarantees must be on the table while Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said on Sunday that only economic guarantees will be made. The idea would be that having American companies in Ukraine would be a bulwark against Russian aggression, as the Russians would hopefully shy away from attacking U.S. interests directly.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent discussed the contours of the potential agreement on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, saying the US can help propel Ukraine onto a “great growth trajectory.” Instead of a military guarantee, the US is offering an “economic security guarantee,” he added.

But Zelenskiy has already rejected a US argument that American companies doing business in Ukraine would itself serve as a form of security guarantee.

Per a source familiar with the deal, Ukraine added language "concerning formal U.S. security guarantees," which may still be a roadblock to any final agreement. The Trump administration clearly does not want to involve American troops in the war, and I can't see that changing. Zelensky also lacks the leverage to make too many demands. Ukraine only making a 50 percent contribution to the aforementioned fund is already a rather large concession by the United States, as is the total repayment number.

We'll see where this goes, but the Trump administration appears ready to still sign something despite all the back and forth. Ukraine will have to assess its limited options and decide just how far it wants to push the matter with the war in the tenous state it is.