24.02.2025 Ecology

Trade in Ukraine: How can the agreement on rare earth metals strengthen the new oligarchy and undermine the interests of ordinary Ukrainians?

The United States is talking about a possible signing of an agreement on the transfer of the right to mine precious metals in Ukraine this week. At the same time, representatives of the President’s Office deny this version, talking about their own conditions regarding the scope of such.

This is all happening in parallel with discussions of “security guarantees” for the country and the nation. After all, as U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted: “The planned deal between Washington and Kyiv on minerals does not include military guarantees for Kyiv.”

And although these issues are now being actively covered in the media as critical to national security and the economy, we have a question: Isn’t this part of a bigger game to strengthen the positions of new oligarchic groups, in particular, the owner of BGV and ATB giants Hennadiy Butkevych?

And why did the State Service of Geology and Subsoil and the Ministry of Environment simply “forget” that Ukraine’s subsoil belongs to the people, as the Constitution states?

 “Trade” in Ukraine’s subsoil: a guarantor of security or a guarantor of profits for oligarchs?

Instead of implementing reforms that will change the economic situation in the country, Ukraine is becoming an object of agreements that are not about the interests of the people, but about satisfying the ambitions of certain business groups. Last but not least, this raises the question of “security guarantees” that will exist not for the people, but for those who hold real power in the country.

In this aspect, one cannot but mention the activities of Gennadiy Butkevych, who has significantly strengthened his market position, including the extraction of minerals, including beryllium, oil, gas, uranium and other strategic resources.

BGV Group Management, Butkevich’s company, is actively entering into agreements with international partners to develop the extraction of critical resources, including rare earth metals. It is interesting that all these processes are taking place against the backdrop of the much-talked-about US deal.

ЩTo understand why there are more and more questions about possible interests, it is enough to look at Gennadiy Butkevych’s business career:

  1. 2015: Founding of BGV Group Management, beginning of active investment in mining.
  2. 2019: Start of massive oil and gas production, as well as entry into the uranium mining market.
  3. 2021: Acquisition of a controlling stake in ATOMIC ENERGY SYSTEMS OF UKRAINE, a company engaged in uranium development and production in Dnipropetrovska and Mykolaivska oblasts.
  4. 2021: Obtaining a merger clearance from the Antimonopoly Committee for the acquisition of Ukrnaftinvest, which also produces oil and natural gas.

This is not the whole list, as many other companies also came under his control, such as Perzhanska Ore Company LLC, which extracts beryllium and other metals at the Perzhanske deposit in the Zhytomyr region.

Butkevych’s media whitewash and ties to the United States

Butkevych’s visit to the United States as part of Ukrainian Week 2025 in Washington only reinforced suspicions of possible “backroom” deals between Ukrainian oligarchs and Western partners. During this visit, according to media reports, Butkevych’s company signed agreements with three international partners, which allegedly confirms active cooperation with foreign corporations. Obviously, as part of this process, the issues of security, economy and national resources are just a PR move to hide more complex and unfavorable deals for Ukraine.

But don’t the articles about Butkevych’s cooperation with the Americans look like another PR move in favor of the oligarch, especially against the backdrop of talk of a deal on precious metals? Could a businessman from Ukraine become a party to a state agreement? Aren’t such agreements concluded at the level of presidents, and with guarantees of compliance, countering corruption and abuse, and market monopolization?

If the resources are given to Butkevych and people like him, citizens and the state will not receive anything from the exploitation of what the Constitution says should be the people’s property. Profits will simply be transferred offshore.

Security bidding or bidding on the fate of Ukraine?

Can we talk about a real guarantee of security for ordinary citizens when the country’s mineral resources and precious metals remain in the hands of people like Hennadiy Butkevych? And can we consider these bargains beneficial for the people of Ukraine when the influence of the new oligarchy is increasingly growing behind the scenes? Instead of protecting the interests of the nation and the development of the state, we are seeing strategic resources being distributed among the most influential oligarchic circles.

Isn’t it time for large-scale reforms in the system of granting special permits and licenses? And in general, the activities of the State Service of Geology and Subsoil? It seems that the current leadership of the Service has forgotten who should actually own the country’s natural resources and who has the right to use and profit from their extraction. And it is not about oligarchs.

It is also worth conducting a detailed audit of the activities of the Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Svitlana Hrynchuk, who has completely failed the activities of the department and showed her loyalty to shadowy schemes to privatize and destroy the country’s resources and ecology.

We demand to cancel all previously granted special permits for the extraction of strategic metals, oil, gas and other resources in Ukrainian fields. We demand a full inventory and, finally, to “excommunicate” oligarchs like Butkevych and his ilk from this process. Isn’t now the best time for reforms?

We should also note the policy of the investigating judges of the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv (SBI), the Koroliovskyi District Court of Zhytomyr (SSU in Zhytomyr Region, Zhytomyr Regional Prosecutor’s Office), and the Solomianskyi District Court of Kyiv (Solomianskyi District Prosecutor’s Office of Kyiv), who do not hesitate to directly cover up their activities and dismiss our complaints demanding that law enforcement agencies be obliged to launch pre-trial investigations.

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