Ukraine and the United States are working on a joint roadmap for Ukraine’s economic development and reconstruction through 2040, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a Telegram post on Saturday.
The statement indicates that Kyiv and Washington may seek to expand cooperation beyond the minerals deal, which linked US military assistance to Ukraine’s long-term economic recovery through shared investment revenues.
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The “roadmap for Ukraine’s prosperity”, as Zelensky called it, lays out a vision for US-Ukraine cooperation until 2040 and “key elements of an investment agreement.”
The President outlined the creation of several financial vehicles for Ukraine’s economic cooperation with the US in the post.
“There will be a Ukraine Reconstruction Fund, there will be a sovereign investment platform of Ukraine, there will be a Ukraine Development Fund, a Ukraine Growth and Opportunity Fund. We are planning for there to be specifically an American-Ukrainian investment reconstruction fund,” Zelensky wrote, without providing further details on the nature of the funds.
There will be further discussions on a “human capital fund,” he added.
It remains unclear whether the parties are aiming for the funds to be created after the end of the full-scale invasion, or whether they might come to fruition during wartime. It is also uncertain whether they will remain active even if negotiations fail to bring an end to Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.
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The negotiations about a further possible US-Ukraine roadmap for Ukraine’s prosperity are anchored in goals for Ukraine’s economy to recover after the war: life expectancy, the return of refugees, GDP per capita, new jobs, security guarantees, accession to the European Union, access to markets and “goals and strategies for macroeconomic stability”, according to Zelensky’s post.
“We estimate that we need approximately $700–800 billion for reconstruction,” he wrote, citing a significantly increased figure compared to the latest estimates in an updated joint Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment (RDNA4) for Ukraine.
The total cost of reconstruction and recovery after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine over the next decade will cost the Ukrainian economy $524 billion – approximately 2.8 times Ukraine’s estimated nominal GDP for 2024, according to the report, although the figure should soon be updated according to a Facebook post by Ukraine’s First Deputy Minister of Community and Territorial Development of Ukraine Alyona Shkrum.
Ukraine and the United States signed the minerals deal on May 30 amid Russia’s full-scale invasion, setting a framework that links US military assistance to Ukraine’s long-term economic reconstruction and shared access to critical raw materials.
The deal establishes the United States-Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, with revenues from new mineral licenses split 50/50.
While it contains no explicit security guarantees, the agreement states that any future US military aid will count toward the American contribution to the fund and includes assurances that the arrangement will not hinder Ukraine’s European Union accession.