US wants to control Gazprom gas pipeline in Ukraine

The source said that US and Ukrainian officials met in Washington on April 11 to discuss the draft proposal. However, the news agency said that the prospect of a breakthrough was very low due to the "confrontational" atmosphere during the meeting. "The negotiating environment was very antagonistic," the source revealed, adding that the draft that the US administration presented in March was "demand maximizing". A US Treasury Department spokesperson confirmed the discussions, describing them as "technical exchanges".

The Ukrainian government has hired law firm Hogan Lovells as outside advisers on the mineral deal, Reuters reported. Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal and Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko are expected to travel to Washington in the next two weeks to attend meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank (WB), including a Ukraine-focused ministerial meeting on April 25, according to sources familiar with the matter.

The mineral deal had previously collapsed following a dispute between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump at the White House on February 28. On March 27, Kiev announced that it had received a revised agreement with much stricter terms than the previous version. The latest proposal requires Ukraine to use all of its natural resource revenues to repay the roughly $120 billion in aid that Washington has provided to Kiev. The US would also take control of a recovery fund for Ukraine as part of the deal.

Since then, Ukrainian officials have repeatedly said they are still reviewing the terms, while President Zelensky has complained that Washington has changed the original terms. For his part, Mr Trump has accused Mr Zelensky of deliberately backing out of the deal and threatened a “big problem” if that happens.