Bessent: Trump believes mineral deal with Ukraine to become additional leverage over Russian leadership

Scott Bessent, US Secretary of the Treasury, has stated at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles that US President Donald Trump intends to use the agreement on mineral resources with Ukraine as a tool to pressure Russia in the context of peace negotiations.

According to the European Pravda, he stated this at the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.

It is noted that Bessent said that the idea for the mineral agreement and noted that the American leader was confident that it would yield several results. Bessent said that one result was “additional leverage” over the Russian leadership.

"One, it would create more leverage for him with the Russian leadership when it was time to go to them," Bessent said. He also said that the idea was to sign an agreement that would show that "there is no daylight between the US and Ukrainian people".

"It would be a symbol to Ukrainian people that the US is still there. It would be a symbol to a tired American public, sceptical of more financial commitments, that it was possible to have a shared prosperity with Ukraine, and then it would, in essence, be a tacit security guarantee because of the economic partnership," Bessent said.

As reported, Ukraine and the United States signed a framework agreement on economic partnership on April 30. US President Donald Trump said that the agreement on subsoil resources will give the United States more than was spent on Ukraine.