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Guardian obtains memorandum of intent to be signed by Ukraine and US
Luke Harding
The Guardian has obtained the memorandum of intent to be signed next week by Ukraine and the US over a minerals deal. It envisages setting up a joint investment fund between the two countries. The draft recognises the “significant financial and material support” Washington has given Kyiv since Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
It does not clarify whether profits from future investments will be used to “pay back” the US for previous military aid made under the Biden administration. Donald Trump says Ukraine “owes” the US at least $300bn. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says weapons deliveries were a Congress-approved grant, not a loan, and therefore do not need to be paid back. He adds that Ukraine is willing to pay for future military aid from the Trump administration.
Key events
Launched as a powerful statement days after Russia’s 2022 invasion, Ukraine’s bid for EU membership faces hardening opposition from Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Next week, Orban’s government plans to send out ballots inviting Hungarians to vote for or against Ukraine’s EU membership.
The consultative vote carries no legal weight but it is similar to others he has used to legitimise his Eurosceptic positions.
US vice-president JD Vance meets with Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni at Chigi Palace in Rome, Italy.
It is expected Ukraine peace talks will be on the agenda for their meeting today.
Russia’s defence ministry on Friday accused Ukraine of attacking Russian energy facilities four times during the past 24 hours despite a US-brokered moratorium on striking each other’s energy infrastructure.
Each side accuses the other of violating the moratorium.
Vance ‘optimistic’ US can end war, he says at Meloni meeting
Angela Giuffrida
The US is optimistic that it can end “the very brutal war” between Russia and Ukraine, vice-president JD Vance said before a bilateral meeting with the Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome on Friday.
The meeting comes less than 24 hours after the pair met in Washington.
“I want to update the prime minister on some of the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine … even in the past 24 hours, we think we have some interesting things to report on,” Vance said.
“Since there are the negotiations I won’t prejudge them, but we do feel optimistic that we can hopefully bring this war, this very brutal war, to a close.”
His comments came a few hours after the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said president Donald Trump would walk away from trying to clinch a Russia-Ukraine peace deal within days unless there were clear signs that one could be done.
Vance, who is in the Italian capital for the Easter weekend, added that the talks with Meloni would also focus on “trade negotiations, not only between Italy and the US but also with the EU.”
After the meeting, the pair will have lunch with the Italian deputy prime ministers, Matteo Salvini and Antonio Tajani.
Meloni, who has long nurtured friendly relations with Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) militants, was the first European leader to meet the US president since he paused some of his planned trade tariffs hikes.
She said Trump had accepted an invitation to Rome, a trip that could happen “in the near future” and could present an opportunity for him to meet other European leaders.
Vance will also meet Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state.
Kyiv said on Friday it had received the bodies of hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers killed during battles with Russia, the second such patriation in the space of three weeks.
“As a result of repatriation activities, the bodies of 909 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, a government agency, said in a statement on social media, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Full text of US-Ukraine memorandum of intent for minerals deal
On Thursday Ukraine and the United States signed a memorandum of intent (see 9.21am BST), confirming their intent to conclude a deal on jointly developing Ukrainian natural resources.
Here is the full text posted on Friday on the website of the Ukrainian government, and provided to us by Reuters:
Memorandium of intent between the government of the United States of America and the government of Ukraine to finalise formal agreement on economic partnership and reconstruction investment fund
Whereas the United States of America has provided significant financial and material support Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022;
Whereas the American people desire to invest alongside the Ukrainian people in a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine desire a lasting peace in Ukraine and a durable partnership between their two peoples and governments;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine recognise the contribution that Ukraine has made to strengthen international peace and security by voluntarily relinquishing the world’s third largest arsenal of nuclear weapons;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine intend to establish a reconstruction investment fund as part of an economic partnership between the two peoples and governments;
Whereas the United States of America and Ukraine have held highly productive technical discussions in Washington DC. as recently as 11-12 April 2025, in order to finalize negotiation of an agreement to establish a reconstruction investment fund;
Whereas the United States respects Ukraine s intention to avoid conflicts in the drafting of the agreement with Ukraine’s obligations under European Union accession or agreements with international financial institutions and other official creditors;
Whereas, without prejudice to any remaining political or legal procedures required to complete the arrangement, Ukrainian prime minister Shmyhal will visit Washington DC. the week of 21 April 2025, to meet with U.S. Treasury Secretary Bessent and lend high-level support to the conclusion of technical discussions on the terms of an agreement establishing a reconstruction investment fund. Negotiating teams are expected to report on the progress by the 26 April 2025, with the aim of completing discussions by that date and signing as soon as possible; and
Now, therefore, as evidenced by the signatures set forth below, the government of the United States and the government of Ukraine enter into this memorandum of Intent to work expeditiously towards the completion of the necessary documents in order to finalize the agreement forging an economic partnership between the American and Ukrainian peoples and establishing a reconstruction investment fund.
This memorandum of Intent may be signed in two or more counterparts, each of which shall be deemed an original, and all of which shall be deemed one instrument.
Ukraine imposes sanctions on three Chinese entities, decree says
Ukraine on Friday imposed sanctions on three Chinese entities, a presidential decree showed, reports Reuters.
The sanctions list, which also includes Russian companies, names Beijing Aviation And Aerospace Xianghui Technology Co. Ltd, Rui Jin Machinery Co. Ltd, and Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Xining Co. Ltd, all registered in China.
Russian forces attacked key drone-making facilities in Ukraine on Friday morning and captured Valentynivka in eastern Ukraine, the Russian defence ministry said.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
Washington will abandon its efforts to broker a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine “within days” unless there are clear signs a settlement can be reached, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has said.
Kyiv has said it has signed a memorandum with the US over a controversial minerals deal. After meeting European and Ukrainian leaders, Rubio said Donald Trump was still interested in a deal but that the US president had many other priorities and was willing to move on unless there were signs of progress.
You can hear Rubio’s comments in this video:
Putin’s order not to hit Ukraine energy targets has ‘expired’, says the Kremlin
A 30-day moratorium on striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure ordered by Russian president Vladimir Putin last month has “expired”, the Kremlin said on Friday.
Russia announced the truce on 18 March after a call between Putin and US president Donald Trump, but both Moscow and Kyiv accused each other of repeatedly breaking it.
“The month has indeed expired,” spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a briefing call, in response to a question by Agence France-Presse (AFP). He added:
As of this time, there have been no other instructions from the supreme commander-in-chief, president Putin.
The short-lived moratorium was one of the few commitments Trump had wrangled from Russia in his attempt to broker a ceasefire in the three-year conflict.
Putin rejected a joint US-Ukrainian proposal for an unconditional and full ceasefire put to him before.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was never serious about the moratorium and that Moscow was continuing to strike Ukraine’s energy targets “despite Putin’s words”.
