ISTANBUL

Ukraine’s parliament is planning next week to ratify the long-awaited minerals deal between Kyiv and Washington, lawmakers said on Friday.

“An extraordinary session of the Verkhovna Rada is planned to be convened on May 8 and the minerals agreement with the US will be ratified,” Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksii Honcharenko wrote on Telegram.

The date planned for the deal’s ratification was confirmed as well by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, another Ukrainian lawmaker, who said the vote is planned for May 8.

Zheleznyak said Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told the parliament that two of the three documents related to the minerals agreement would not require ratification.

“The preliminary agreement is that the (investment) fund will be registered in the US, but the account will be in Ukraine and the replenishment will be in (Ukrainian) hryvnia,” Zheleznyak quoted Shmyhal as saying when asked if the jurisdiction of registration for the fund will be in the US state of Delaware.

He said the Ukrainian premier conveyed the duration of the minerals agreement as indefinite, but that both sides can raise the issue of terminating the deal after 10 years.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the agreement as a “key component of Ukraine’s future security infrastructure” that maintains national sovereignty.

“It correctly balances benefits and obligations without harming national interests,” he said in the parliament.

“This agreement does not contain any restrictions on Ukraine’s sovereign rights over mineral resources, critical infrastructure, or other strategic assets,” Sybiha added. “It respects Ukraine’s obligations to the European Union and supports our strategic goal of EU accession.”

The fund, he said, is structured to ensure parity in decision-making and does not impose any debt obligations on Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Ukraine and the US signed the deal after months of tense negotiations, as well as a heated Oval Office exchange this February.

The agreement stipulates the establishment of a joint investment fund for Ukraine's reconstruction, and will be financed, in part, by revenues gained from the extraction of natural resources.