You were in New York, among other
things, to meet with representatives of
the Trump administration. What are you
hammering out today?
>> Uh we're here for uh for the launch
ceremony of the first ever Ukrainian
company to be listed on NASDAQ, which is
KStar, our prime Ukrainian digital
operator. But at the same time uh the uh
the teams from the ministry of uh
foreign affairs are meeting and the
office of the president are meeting with
the uh Trump representatives to discuss
the next steps on peace negotiations.
Well, let's talk next steps. There are
reports today about a plan by the
European Commission to transfer some€200
billion euros in Russian assets to
rebuild Ukraine at the end of the war.
We're not even at the stage of a
ceasefire yet, Minister. Is it time
already to speak about rebuilding?
>> Uh we we always say that uh there is no
need to wait uh because like all the
processes that take time and even if
there are like uh investors that are
interested in Ukraine. It is uh very
wise right now to go to Ukraine to look
at the country to understand what's
actually happening on the ground to look
at the sector. So for example uh back to
this KF star, it makes more money right
now than pre-invasion. So this is the
reality and not myth. So that's how we
need to look forward on uh and
understand what needs to be done and
design some instruments that going to
derisk some investments. Uh but it takes
time. So uh regarding Russian assets,
it's it has been our position of Ukraine
always that these assets will ultimately
be working in Ukraine and for Ukraine.
So this is just the next step in
discussion with European Commission on
to how uh to uh actually use them and
deploy them. So right now they're just
used in uh overnight rates, right? And
with active management they they can
produce much more revenue that could
also be working right now for the
strengthening of Ukraine um fighting
Russian aggression.
You know, reports suggest that Vladimir
Silinski is nowhere near reaching an
actual uh negotiating table with
Vladimir Putin, that talks have not been
scheduled and Putin has no intention of
scheduling them. Does that make it
difficult for you to talk about post-war
planning?
>> Well, we don't talk about post-war
planning. So, like the listing happens
now, right? So I I don't think that
anyone would have believed uh like a
couple of years ago if we were going to
say that the first ever NASDAQ listing
of Ukrainian company is going to be
happen during the full-scale Russian
invasion. But it is true. So this is the
nature of Ukrainian reality the economy
is resilient. Right. Uh but then uh on
the peace talks position it has been
always positioned we agree was what was
suggested by the President Trump that
there should be a ceasefire immediately.
We supported that. Then uh there was the
discussion with u uh second uh oval
office meeting with European leaders
that uh there should be a uh bilateral
or trilateral meeting with uh president
uh Putin and we actually accepted that
and uh it is coming to the end this uh
twoe period where Russia should indicate
that it actually is ready to negotiate.
Ukraine is always ready as has been
stressed by our president multiple
times. So, uh, probably everyone sees
right now that it's Russia that's not
ready to negotiate and all the signals
that they sending is that they're not
ready and like Ukraine is ready to
negotiate and we're ready for peace and
we're saying to that there should be
ceasefire immediately. Uh, so this is
the state we're in. Uh, but also on the
battlefield you can see that the Russia
is not advancing. Um, it is kind of
barely gaining any ground. So, uh, it is
harder and harder for Russia to explain
its supporters. It's global south
countries. Why is it doing that? And uh
what for?
>> Well, tell me more then about this stock
listing at the NASDAQ today, Minister,
and how crucial private business will be
in Ukraine.
>> So, if you look at the rapid damage
disassessment uh done by the World Bank
uh with Ke School of Economics, it says
that the recovery needs for Ukraine will
be more than $500 billion. So, no way
public money going to fit this bill,
right? So uh we understand that the bulk
majority of the funding to recover
Ukraine and actually to grow the economy
and to do it even now will come from the
private sector. Uh which means that why
this listing right now is so important.
It's very important for us to access US
investors and Ukraine has been uh one of
the prime countries to reach a major
deal with Trump administration the
minerals deal or the deal about US
Ukraine investment fund to actually get
more investments from US into Ukraine.
So um we we just say look at the results
and Ukraine has been progressing
steadily across the last couple of years
to attracting new investment and u
preparing for for reconstruction and uh
we see right now also through this
listing that the interest in the
investors uh during the uh opening
ceremony during the launch ceremony uh
was higher than we anticipated. So uh
people also maybe want to do a piece
play uh to have Ukrainian exposure and I
think this KFAR listing is is a great
tool uh to do that. But also uh look at
the fundamentals of this KFAR as a
digital operator a big company that uh
um that servicing more than 23 million
Ukrainians. It just shows how big the
market are and how sometimes like the
margins of KStar are really one of the
top in the world in this segment. So, it
shows that you can actually do a lot of
business in Ukraine.
>> You mentioned the minerals deal. Uh,
minister, I'd love to hear a status
update. This was signed the beginning of
May uh and aim to establish a joint
investment fund as well for the
reconstruction of Ukraine. How far along
are you in getting this off the ground
and when when will minerals start being
processed by Americans in Ukraine?
>> Yeah, so there are several tracks that
we are um developing in this fund. Next
week we're going to have the first ever
board meeting of the fund to actually
adopt a lot of the uh charters and the
documents needed to uh start operations
of the fund and we're also uh at the
same time uh we're uh doing um uh the
pipeline for the fund. So there's going
to be a big delegation from uh from US
coming to Ukraine in September to
actually do site visits uh to look for
the companies that could be uh serve as
the first several investments uh from
the fund and we uh also agree on the
volume of the seed capital of the fund
together with us. So the the fund is
progressing very nicely. The other big
thing that we're doing is we need to put
more licenses for auctions from Ukraine.
though uh companies from US or other
parts of the world that u can uh can
mine these minerals can access these
licenses and then the fund could invest
in them. So basically uh this week we
announced a decision from the cabinet of
ministers to put a big lithium deposit
for uh for competition and this is one
of the areas that we think would be
interested for US companies and for the
fund to invest in them.
I saw that lithium deposit, but you're
telling me that Ukraine will help to be
involved in that bidding process to help
select the American companies, not
exclusively the Trump administration.
>> I'm I'm saying that we're uh we
announced the competition and uh
competition is is free for uh based on
the uh terms of competition. It is
according to the processes that were
developed uh within the laws and yeah we
hope that US companies going to be
bidding and we do know that several of
them are very interested in this in
exploring and bidding for this lithium
deposit.
>> We'd love to talk to you more about that
when the time comes and when you know
more. Minister, we spent most of our
conversation talking about rebuilding
rebuilding Ukraine postwar. Do you
believe that Vladimir Putin has any
intention, any interest in ending this
conflict?
>> Well,
should it actually matter like what what
we hear the President Trump is saying is
the peace through strength, right? So,
uh how how the development was before we
see that Russia's probably is not very
interested in in doing that. uh but then
there are some pressure points through
sanctions and there's uh law in the
parliament and we also see like how
sanctions actually work and we see that
Russia is afraid of uh President Trump
and Russia is afraid afraid of secondary
sanctions. So this is kind of the final
beat and the peace would come through
strength and then uh after the peace
comes we need to have a security
guarantees and as also President Trump
agreed during the last meeting uh of the
in the oval office that this should this
should not be peace for just one year or
10 years. It should be something long
and sustainable that the companies um
looking at us right now would be uh
ready to invest in Ukraine would believe
that this piece is actually sustainable.
So uh it only can come through strength
and through uh some guarantees and
guarantees could come uh in the means of
um boots on the ground and something
similar to NATO article 5 but also
Ukraine's EU integration which would
also kind of fix Ukraine's geopolitical
position. So this should be all
discussed during uh peace negotiations
in complex but we think that the um the
outcome of war would go as a peace
through strength and then really uh like
practical um practical long-term uh
guarantees security guarantees that will
uh enforce this peace in Ukraine.