Kyiv: Ukraine does not need to repay its debt to US

The memorandum signed by Ukraine and the United States confirming their intention to conclude an agreement in the field of rare earth metals does not imply any debt repayment for US assistance, Taras Kachka, Deputy Minister of Economy of Ukraine said.

The two sides signed the document on April 17. According to Ukraine's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko, the memorandum confirms the intention to conclude a mutually beneficial agreement. It will "create opportunities for significant investment, infrastructure modernization, and a mutually advantageous partnership between Ukraine and the United States."

At the same time, Kachka emphasized that debt repayment was not part of the discussion.

"No one, including the US, is saying this is a debt we need to repay. The idea is that the structure should be such that the fund's operations and future investments will generate at least as much as the aid that was provided. (…) There is no hidden acknowledgment of debt or any requirement to repay anything — absolutely not," Taras Kachka said.

US Reportedly Eased Its Debt Demands Toward Ukraine

Washington now assesses Ukraine's debt at $100 billion, not $300 billion as previously estimated, Bloomberg sources reported. This figure aligns more closely with Kyiv's own assessment, the agency clarified.

The amount is being discussed as part of negotiations over the critical minerals deal. The US hopes the agreement will include compensation for the funds provided to Ukraine by the administration of former President Joe Biden. Washington considers the aid already provided as an investment in a future special reconstruction investment fund.

Details

The rare-earth elements (REE), also called the rare-earth metals or rare earths, and sometimes the lanthanides or lanthanoids (although scandium and yttrium, which do not belong to this series, are usually included as rare earths), are a set of 17 nearly indistinguishable lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. Compounds containing rare earths have diverse applications in electrical and electronic components, lasers, glass, magnetic materials, and industrial processes. The term "rare-earth" is a misnomer because they are not actually scarce, but historically it took a long time to isolate these elements. They are relatively plentiful in the entire Earth's crust (cerium being the 25th-most-abundant element at 68 parts per million, more abundant than copper), but in practice they are spread thinly as trace impurities, so to obtain rare earths at usable purity requires processing enormous amounts of raw ore at great expense; thus the name "rare" earths.