Photo: Facebook / Yulia Sviridenko
Kyiv, 1 May 2025. Ukraine’s Minister of Economy Yulia Svyrydenko and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent have signed an important bilateral agreement to establish the U.S.-Ukraine Recovery Investment Fund, which aims to jointly invest in the country’s recovery and develop projects in critical materials, oil and gas.
Svyrydenko announced this on her Facebook page, and the US Treasury Department also informed about the details of the deal.
Direct speech by Yulia Sviridenko:
“Together with U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessant, she signed an agreement to establish the U.S.-Ukraine Recovery Investment Fund.”
Direct speech by Scott Bessent:
“This deal sends a clear message to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process that has a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine at its centre in the long term. No state or individual that has financed or supplied Russia’s war machine will benefit from Ukraine’s rebuilding.”
Key provisions of the agreement:
- Ukraine retains full control over the subsoil – this is explicitly stated in the agreement.
- The Fund is being created on a 50/50 basis: it will be jointly managed, with no one party having a majority vote.
- State-owned companies remain in Ukrainian ownership, including Ukrnafta and Energoatom.
- The agreement does not include Ukraine’s debt obligations to the US.
- The Fund does not change Ukraine’s European integration course and is in line with the Constitution and international law.
- The Fund’s revenues will be generated exclusively from new licences for the extraction of critical materials, oil and gas.
- Only point changes to the legislation: only an amendment to the Budget Code is required, and the agreement is ratified by the Verkhovna Rada.
- Tax benefits: the Fund’s income and contributions are not taxed in the United States or Ukraine.
- Involvement of DFC: The United States will help Ukraine invest through the state-owned DFC.
Direct speech by Svyrydenko:
“We expect that for the first 10 years, the fund’s profits will not be distributed, but reinvested in the Ukrainian economy – in new projects or in reconstruction. The US will also be able to make contributions in the form of air defence systems.”
The agreement was a strong signal of support for Ukraine from the Donald Trump administration and clearly outlined the strategic economic cooperation between the two countries in the post-war period.
