The Ukraine-US minerals deal struck on Wednesday pursuant to fraught negotiations for months raises the prospects for a peace process to end the longest war in Europe in 80 years. At the very least, the development signals a return to civility after negotiations were derailed following an acrimonious exchange in February in the White House between president Donald Trump and president Volodymyr Zelensky.

That bitter and widely publicised spectacle led Washington to abruptly, although temporarily, withdraw all military aid and suspend intelligence sharing with the Ukrainian defence forces.

The United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund provides Washington access to the proceeds from the extraction of Kiev’s rare earth minerals. The pact, thus, marks another important........

© Free Press Journal