Ukraine and the United States planned to sign a long-awaited minerals deal Wednesday — before yet another last-minute obstacle threatened to scupper the plan.
As Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko traveled to Washington on Wednesday to ink the agreement, the American side demanded Kyiv sign not only the main economic pact, but also two technical side-deals, a senior official familiar with the matter told POLITICO after being granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive topic.
One person familiar with the matter faulted Ukraine for reopening terms that have already been agreed upon, upsetting Wednesday’s planned signing.
The U.S. told Svyrydenko not to travel to Washington on Wednesday unless the agreements were finalized, the person said.
Both countries agreed on the final technical documents over the weekend, but the person said Ukraine on Wednesday tried to reopen previously agreed upon sticking points, including the governance of the fund, the transparency mechanism and making sure the funds are all fully traceable. The teams “stayed up all night Friday and into Saturday morning finalizing the documents” and worked late into Tuesday night as well, the person said.
Posted by John3262005
3 Comments
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Just plain extortion. If this gets signed the next democratic administration should rip it up on day one.
It’s infrastructure week!