U.S. Approves First Military Sale to Ukraine Under Trump as Strategic Minerals Deal Sets New Tone

 WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a significant shift in policy, the Trump administration has approved its first sale of military equipment to Ukraine since taking office, marking a potential thaw in previously strained defense relations between the two countries.

According to official correspondence submitted to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the State Department has certified a license for the commercial export of "$50 million or more" in defense hardware and services to Ukraine. The authorization represents the first such approval since President Donald Trump halted military assistance to Kyiv shortly after his inauguration.

The move comes just days after Ukraine and the United States finalized a landmark agreement on strategic minerals, raising hopes in Kyiv that broader security cooperation may now be back on the table.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy hailed the minerals pact as a breakthrough. “Now we have the first result of the Vatican meeting, which makes it really historic. We are waiting for other results of the meeting,” he said in his nightly address on Thursday, referring to a discussion with Trump held on the sidelines of Pope Francis's funeral last week.

Describing the agreement as “truly equal,” Zelenskyy said it presented “an opportunity for quite significant investment in Ukraine.”

Though the arms sale does not include a specific list of weaponry, the development is seen as opening a path to renewed defense cooperation. “There is no direct link where it’s written that ‘you will receive these particular weapons’, but it opens the possibility for parallel talks on the purchase of weapons,” said Mykhailo Podolyak, a senior adviser to President Zelenskyy. “The American side is now open to these discussions,” he added.

The agreement was formally signed in Washington on Wednesday by Ukraine’s First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. According to U.S. officials, ratification by Ukraine’s parliament is expected within a week.

The deal establishes a bilateral fund financed through new licenses for the extraction of critical minerals, oil, and gas—excluding any funds previously allocated to Ukraine under military or humanitarian aid, which President Trump had publicly suggested should be reimbursed.

Importantly, the agreement guarantees Ukraine’s right to maintain its trajectory toward EU integration and avoids granting exclusive rights to U.S. firms. Instead, it allows American companies to compete on equal footing in public tenders. “It’s now a really equal agreement which allows for investment in Ukraine,” Zelenskyy reiterated.

The final version of the agreement followed nearly three months of negotiations. An earlier draft brought to Kyiv by Secretary Bessent was rejected by Zelenskyy as overly punitive. A subsequent ceremony planned at the White House in February collapsed after Trump and Senator JD Vance sharply criticized Zelenskyy in the Oval Office, abruptly ending discussions.

Asked how Kyiv managed to negotiate more favorable terms, Podolyak pointed to a tactical disparity between public rhetoric and private negotiations. “That’s just the style of this [U.S.] administration, it’s very aggressive with communications. They will allow leaks of the most horrible conditions and so on, but then in reality they negotiate normally and you can achieve a result,” he said. “They just use this aggression to try to improve their starting position.”

With the possibility of future arms purchases, Ukraine is now expected to be more strategic in its requests. “I think fairly quickly we will understand which types of weapons, to carefully select the unique weapons the U.S. has,” Podolyak said. “Because if we can produce our own drones, for example, then we will do that here. But there are some critical weapon types which only the U.S. produces and nobody else.”

Zelenskyy has previously expressed interest in acquiring U.S.-made Patriot air defense systems, potentially through European financing or the new minerals fund.

At this stage, it remains unclear what specific defense articles are included in the newly authorized $50 million export package. The sale falls under a Direct Commercial Sale (DCS) license, which allows U.S. defense contractors to sell equipment directly to foreign governments with approval from the State Department. The proposed deal was first reported by the Kyiv Post.

The last military aid package to Ukraine was issued under the Biden administration, which allocated $1 billion in the final weeks of its tenure to expedite support before President Trump’s return to office.

Reactions from Moscow have been limited, though former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev denounced the minerals agreement as a blow to Kyiv. “Trump has broken the Kyiv regime to the point where they will have to pay for U.S. aid with mineral resources,” he wrote on Telegram. “Now they [Ukrainians] will have to pay for military supplies with the national wealth of a disappearing country.”

Despite such criticism, officials in Kyiv view the developments as a potential pivot toward renewed U.S. engagement, combining economic partnership with strategic defense cooperation.