


KYIV, Ukraine — More than a month after Washington and Kyiv first haggled over a deal to grant the United States a major stake in Ukraine’s mineral, oil and gas development projects, the two sides are back to square one in the negotiations.
Washington has sent Kyiv a new proposal that restates the sweeping financial demands from an initial draft agreement rejected by Ukraine, adding others that could burden the country’s finances for years, according to the text of the new draft obtained by The New York Times and authenticated and reviewed by three current and former Ukrainian officials.
Several Ukrainian lawmakers suggested that Ukraine could not possibly accept such a deal and that new negotiations would be needed.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters in Paris on Thursday that the new proposal requires “detailed study” and suggested that a final agreement is still far off. But he also said he did not want “to leave the U.S. with the feeling that Ukraine is against it in general,” a clear attempt to avoid angering the White House, as he did last month after rejecting earlier proposals, which partly led the United States to temporarily cut off aid to Ukraine.
The new proposal reverts to President Donald Trump’s initial demand that Ukraine repay the United States for the billions Kyiv has received in military and financial aid since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, according to the three current and former Ukrainian officials, some of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
The new draft echoes earlier versions by omitting any mention of security guarantees for Ukraine, a provision that Kyiv had long pressed for and managed to include in a draft last month but that Washington had long resisted.
As in earlier proposals, Ukraine would have to contribute half of its revenue from natural resource projects and related infrastructure, such as ports and pipelines, to a U.S.- controlled investment fund.
The new proposal is also more specific about how profit would be shared: Washington would claim all profit from the fund until Kyiv repaid at least the equivalent of the U.S. aid received during the war plus 4% annual interest.
The United States also would retain a “right of first offer” on new projects and the power to veto sales of Ukrainian resources to third countries. And in the first year of the agreement, Ukraine would be prohibited from offering any investment projects to third parties with better financial or economic terms than those offered to the U.S.