Ukraine poised to sign much anticipated mineral resources deal with the US on Wednesday

KYIV Ukraine AP Ukraine is prepared to sign a landmark mineral tools agreement with the United States in Washington on Wednesday according to two senior Ukrainian administrators who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren t authorized to discuss the matter publicly Financial sector Minister Yulia Svyrydenko is now in Washington for the final coordination of the agreement s technical details the sources announced It wasn t instantly clear whether the Trump administration also was ready to ink the deal Trump has revealed that he wants Ukraine s rare earth elements as a condition of further promotion in its more than three-year war with Russia The Ukrainian Cabinet is expected to approve the agreement s text before the Washington meeting after which it will be signed by an authorized governing body representative The deal will then require ratification in the Ukrainian parliament before it can take effect According to one of the Ukrainian authorities multiple documents are involved including a main agreement and at least two technical accords outlining the structure and operations of the joint fund The official mentioned that the Ukrainian side is generally satisfied with how the agreement has evolved following negotiations between both teams The other senior official expressed hope that there would be no further changes from Washington s side Ukraine has introduced new provisions to the agreement aiming to address earlier concerns that the initial U S draft presented in March disproportionately favored American interests Negotiations between the two sides have continued steadily since then One industry official close to the discussions revealed that more details and not just declarations were added to the text In Moscow a senior Kremlin official revealed Wednesday that clinching a deal to end the Russia-Ukraine war is far too complex to be done briskly as the U S labors to bring momentum to peace efforts and expresses frustration over the slow progress Meanwhile a nighttime Russian drone attack on Ukraine s second-largest city of Kharkiv wounded at least civilians authorities commented The United Nations published that the number of Ukrainian civilian casualties in the more than three-year war has surged in fresh weeks amid Washington s attempts to broker a peace agreement Putin wants answers before committing to a ceasefire Russian President Vladimir Putin backs calls for a ceasefire before peace negotiations but before it s done it s necessary to answer a scant questions and sort out a minimal nuances Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov explained Putin is also ready for direct talks with Ukraine without preconditions to seek a peace deal he added We realize that Washington wants to achieve quick progress but we hope for understanding that the Ukrainian predicament settlement is far too complex to be done swiftly Peskov reported on his daily conference call with reporters There are a large number of details and an array of small nuances that need to be solved before a settlement U S President Donald Trump has previously expressed frustration over the slow pace of progress in negotiations aimed at stopping the war which he disclosed he could end in the first hours of his new administration in January Western European leaders have accused Putin of stalling while his forces seek to grab more Ukrainian land Russia has captured nearly a fifth of Ukraine s territory since Moscow s forces launched a full-scale invasion on Feb Trump has chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for approaches that he noted were prolonging the killing field and the U S leader has rebuked Putin for complicating negotiations with very bad timing in launching deadly strikes that battered the Ukrainian capital Kyiv Trump has long dismissed the war as a waste of American taxpayer money and lives lost in the conflict Senior U S bureaucrats have warned that the administration could abandon the peace efforts if it sees no fix That could spell an end to crucial military help for Ukraine and heavier economic sanctions on Russia US wants both sides to move faster The U S State Department on Tuesday tried again to push both sides to move more hurriedly We are now at a time where concrete proposals need to be delivered by the two parties on how to end this conflict department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce quoted U S Secretary of State Marco Rubio as telling her How we proceed from here is a decision that belongs now to the president she described reporters relating a conversation that she had with Rubio If there is no progress we will step back as mediators in this process Russia has effectively rejected a U S proposal for an immediate and full -day ceasefire making it conditional on a halt to Ukraine s mobilization effort and Western arms supplies to Kyiv Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed Wednesday that Ukraine had accepted an unconditional truce only because it was being pushed back on the battlefield where the bigger Russian forces have the upper hand In the context of the developments on the ground along the front line where the Kyiv regime is increasingly in retreat they have made an about-turn and started demanding an immediate ceasefire without any preconditions Lavrov stated at a briefing in Rio de Janeiro where he was attending a ministerial meeting of the BRICS grouping He also suggested that Ukraine s ceasefire promises weren t credible Both sides have accused each other of urgent previous truces Independent verification of the battlefield insists wasn t feasible UN says Ukrainian civilian casualties are on the rise Meanwhile Ukrainian civilians have been killed or wounded in attacks every day this year according to a U N review presented Tuesday in New York The U N Human Rights Office announced in the statement that in the first three months of this year it had verified civilian casualties in Ukraine That was almost more than during the same period last year Also between April - civilian casualties in Ukraine were up from the same weeks in it mentioned The Ukrainian air force disclosed that Russia fired Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine between Tuesday and Wednesday predominantly at the cities of Dnipro and Kharkiv Also Wednesday the Ukrainian Protection Institution claimed its drones struck the Murom Instrument Engineering Plant in Russia s Vladimir region overnight causing five explosions and a fire The plant located east of Moscow produces ammunition ignition devices as well as components and products for the Russian Navy and military aviation a source at the agency stated Associated Press The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the attack The claim could not be independently verified Follow AP s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https apnews com hub russia-ukraine Source