Since the signing, Svyrydenko\u2019s ministry has been working with the fund\u2019s U.S. partners \u2014 U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and the International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) \u2014 to get initial projects off the ground.<\/p>\n
The minister recently announced that the fund\u2019s pilot project<\/a> would be the development of a lithium deposit in Dobra, in Ukraine\u2019s Kirovohrad Oblast.<\/p>\n But Kyiv is also pitching more projects, including an offshore gas exploration project involving Ukraine\u2019s state-owned oil and gas giant Naftogaz<\/a>, and a plan to modernize the Kremenchuk oil refinery \u2014 the country\u2019s largest petroleum production site, located in Poltava Oblast. The oil refinery is owned and operated by Ukraine’s largest oil company, the state-owned Ukrnafta.<\/p>\n With Ukraine\u2019s massive domestic market for petroleum products, Svyrydenko called the refinery project “strategic and extremely important.” The ministry submitted the $2.7 billion project to the DFC and is awaiting feedback.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s an important project for us, and it\u2019s bankable,” she said in the interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n The refinery in Kremenchuk<\/a> is a frequent target of Russian missile and drone attacks. When asked whether Kyiv would discuss air defense with the U.S. if the DFC moved forward with the project, Svyrydenko said there\u2019s currently “nothing about air defense in this project,” but noted that “U.S. companies that may participate in project implementation can have a strong voice and appeal to the U.S. government.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2018If it were a bad deal, I wouldn\u2019t have signed it\u2019 \u2014 Ukraine\u2019s economy minister on negotiating US minerals deal in exclusive interview<\/p>\n Ukraine\u2019s Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko says her task is simple \u2014 to get the investment fund behind the closely watched minerals deal with the U.S. off the ground, and prove its detractors wrong. \u201cThere are so many criticisms from different parties that this fund is just a piece of paper we can put on the shelves \u2014 that it won\u2019t be operational,\u201d Svyrydenko, who is also Ukraine\u2019s first deputy prime minister, tells the Kyiv Independent at Ukraine\u2019s Cabinet of Ministers on July 4, the morning<\/p>\n On July 1, Politico reported that the U.S. Defense Department had paused<\/a> some promised air defense and weapons shipments to Ukraine, citing concerns about depleting American stockpiles. U.S. President Donald Trump later said the U.S. “might” send Patriot systems to Ukraine<\/a>.<\/p>\n A day later, on July 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Economy Ministry met with U.S. companies operating in Ukraine to discuss the urgent need for additional air defenses to protect businesses and cities.<\/p>\n “We understand that if there is U.S. investment in the country, there\u2019s more motivation for the U.S. to protect (those assets),” Svyrydenko said.<\/p>\n Kyiv hopes to implement the first three projects under the agreement over the next 18 months and plans to hold the fund\u2019s first official meeting at the end of July, in Kyiv.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s extremely important for our partners, for our investors, to be in the country \u2014 to see how the country operates during wartime, to see that we\u2019re still fighting and still working,” Svyrydenko said.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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