Ukraine says it's poised to sign a key mineral resources deal with the US on Wednesday

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukraine is poised to sign a landmark mineral resources agreement with the United States in Washington on Wednesday, according to two senior Ukrainian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is currently in Washington for the final coordination of the agreement's technical details, the sources said.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the Trump administration, which has pressed for the agreement to be signed, also was ready to ink the deal.

Trump has said that he wants Ukraine's rare earth elements as a condition of further support in its more than three-year war with Russia.

Ukraine has deposits of titanium, which is used for making aircraft wings and other aerospace manufacturing. It also has lithium, key to several current battery technologies, and uranium, used for nuclear power, medical equipment and weapons. On top of that, it has graphite and manganese, both used in batteries for electric vehicles.

Talks had stalled earlier this year after a tense Oval Office meeting in February between the U.S. and Ukrainian leaders.

For Ukraine, the deal is seen as possibly key in getting future military aid from the U.S.

The Ukrainian Cabinet is expected to approve the agreement's text before the Washington meeting, after which it will be signed by an authorized government representative.

The deal will then require ratification in the Ukrainian parliament before it can take effect.

According to one of the Ukrainian officials, multiple documents are involved — including a main agreement and at least two technical accords outlining the structure and operations of the joint fund.

The official said that the Ukrainian side is generally satisfied with how the agreement has evolved following negotiations between both teams.

The other senior official expressed hope that there would be no further changes from Washington's side.

Ukraine has introduced new provisions to the agreement, aiming to address earlier concerns that the initial U.S. draft, presented in March, disproportionately favored American interests. Negotiations between the two sides have continued steadily since then.

One industry official close to the discussions said that more ''details and not just declarations'' were added to the text.

The development came amid rocky progress in Washington's push to stop the war.

In Moscow, a senior Kremlin official said Wednesday that clinching a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war ''is far too complex to be done quickly,'' as the U.S. labors to bring momentum to peace efforts and expresses frustration over the slow progress.

Meanwhile, a nighttime Russian drone attack on Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv wounded at least 45 civilians, officials said. The United Nations reported that the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties in the more than three-year war has surged in recent weeks amid Washington's attempts to broker a peace agreement.

Putin wants answers before committing to a ceasefire

Russian President Vladimir Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations, ''but before it's done, it's necessary to answer a few questions and sort out a few nuances,'' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. Putin is also ready for direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions to seek a peace deal, he added.

''We realize that Washington wants to achieve quick progress, but we hope for understanding that the Ukrainian crisis settlement is far too complex to be done quickly,'' Peskov said on his daily conference call with reporters. ''There are many details and an array of small nuances that need to be solved before a settlement.''

U.S. President Donald Trump has previously expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in negotiations aimed at stopping the war, which he said he could end in the first 24 hours of his new administration in January. Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land. Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine's territory since Moscow's forces launched a full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.

Trump has chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for steps that he said were ''prolonging'' the ''killing field,'' and the U.S. leader has rebuked Putin for complicating negotiations with ''very bad timing'' in launching deadly strikes that battered the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.

Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of American taxpayer money and lives lost in the conflict. Senior U.S. officials have warned that the administration could abandon the peace efforts if it sees no solution. That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine and heavier economic sanctions on Russia.

US wants both sides to move faster

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to move more quickly.

''We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict," department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce quoted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling her.

''How we proceed from here is a decision that belongs now to the president,'' she told reporters, relating a conversation that she had with Rubio. ''If there is no progress, we will step back as mediators in this process.''

Russia has effectively rejected a U.S. proposal for an immediate and full 30-day ceasefire, making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine's mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield, where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand.

''In the context of the developments on the ground, along the front line where the Kyiv regime is increasingly in retreat, they have made an about-turn and started demanding an immediate ceasefire without any preconditions,'' Lavrov said at a briefing in Rio de Janeiro where he was attending a ministerial meeting of the BRICS grouping.

He also suggested that Ukraine's ceasefire promises weren't credible. Both sides have accused each other of breaking previous truces. Independent verification of the battlefield claims wasn't possible.

UN says Ukrainian civilian casualties are on the rise

Meanwhile, Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year, according to a U.N. report presented Tuesday in New York.

The U.N. Human Rights Office said in the report that in the first three months of this year, it had verified 2,641 civilian casualties in Ukraine. That was almost 900 more than during the same period last year.

Also, between April 1-24, civilian casualties in Ukraine were up 46% from the same weeks in 2024, it said.

The Ukrainian air force said that Russia fired 108 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday, predominantly at the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv.

Also Wednesday, the Ukrainian Security Service claimed its drones struck the Murom Instrument Engineering Plant in Russia's Vladimir region overnight, causing five explosions and a fire.

The plant located east of Moscow produces ammunition ignition devices, as well as components and products for the Russian Navy and military aviation, a source at the agency told Associated Press. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack.

The claim could not be independently verified.

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Follow AP's coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine