GOP senators are divided over the emerging deal, with some hailing it as a big potential win and other Republicans calling for a stronger guarantee of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
Some conservatives, however, are warning against any security guarantee by the United States. They fear it would risk embroiling the nation in a future war.
A draft agreement of the potential deal to split management of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and oil and natural gas reserves that circulated Thursday did not include a firm security guarantee for Ukraine, something that several Republican senators said would be critical to any viable peace deal.
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), a leading advocate for U.S. support of the Ukrainian war effort, said a strong U.S. security guarantee would be “critical” to luring U.S. private investment to mineral and fossil fuel extraction within Ukraine’s borders.
He said if the security guarantees “are not pretty strong, to the extent the private sector is playing a role, why would they go there?”
Tillis cautioned that a “complicating factor” is that “a good portion of the minerals that we’re talking about are underneath the ground of where Russian soldiers are standing right now in the occupied area.”
Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.), a prominent voice on national security issues, said he’s waiting to see whether Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials embrace the deal.
Zelensky is scheduled to visit the White House on Friday to sign the deal, which Trump has hailed as “a very big agreement.”
Young said that the United States will need to provide assistance to European allies in the near and medium term to “deter further Russian aggression.”
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) called the minerals agreement “a good step forward” but cautioned “there is going to have to be” a stronger U.S.-provided security guarantee.
Read the full report at TheHill.com.
