“I hope,

The Ukrainian geologist has recently been purchased in his domestic market in pork belly, bacon, salmon and grapes when he heard screams with a man who seemed drunk, complaining about President Volodmir Zelenski.

“Why didn’t Zelensky pray for us before giving our minerals to Americans?” He screamed. The woman joined: “Americans come to take everything.”

Geologist, 75 -year -old Volodymyr Savytskyi, was silent. He hopes more for a potential mineral agreement that dominates the negotiations and revealed the tension between his country and the United States.

“We just have to survive,” said Mr Savytskyi. “I hope Trump is not misleading us. I really hope he won’t. I believe Americans should come, invest their money here, make a profit, but we should also get our righteous part – a piece of our pie.”

Kirovohrad in the Central Ukrainian region, one of the leading mining areas of the country, the reaction to the proposed transaction is cautious hope, fatalism and anger. After years of trying to resist Russia’s influence and coordinated with the West, many here reflexively look at America’s investment positively and are ready to use their natural resources to support the country’s most important trial by stopping Russia.

And yet, there are signs of increasing skepticism about terms and whether the United States, and in particular the Trump administration, can be trusted. Some people support the deal because they believe that Ukraine has no choice.

The Ukrainian authorities claim that there are more than 20 critical mineral deposits in the country; One consulting firm rated them as a multi -trillion dollar worthIn the area

The Trump’s administration is looking for future profits from these minerals, which it calls a repayment of military assistance, the United States has given Ukraine since the Russian invasion more than three years ago. In exchange, the US would theoretically continue to support Ukraine.

The deal has taken a longer period of time than expected. The original version collapsed at the devastating White House meeting in late February. The new American proposal, released at the end of March, is much more cumbersome for the Ukrainians. Kiev has said that before signing the deal, it is necessary to talk to improve the rules.

Critics destroyed it as a kind of blackmail. Some Ukrainians said it actually steals resources from Ukraine without providing security guarantees for the future of the nation.

Andrew Brodsky, who founded Velta, the leading private Ukrainian titanium company that could benefit from the deal, said: “This is a mutually beneficial story if it is done properly.”

But he stressed that any agreement was fair to both countries. He said the deal should be a new plan for Marshall, which helped to rebuild Europe after World War II, while allowing American companies to make a profit. Six potential American investors had already turned to Velta, wanting to join forces, Mr Brodsky added.

However, getting minerals here is not like going to an ATM: although Velta began operating in 2003, until 2012, titanium was needed to produce titanium from the large Ilmenite deposits in Kirovohrad. Ukrainian mineral deposits cards dated with Soviet times and not mandatoryExperts say.

Environmental defenders hope that US investors could bring cleaner practices and better protection of workers in the mines, but there have been no such guarantees.

Mr Savytskyi, who, when it comes to minerals, laughs in his ears, is a guide to everything below the surface here. He helped write often quoted paper in 2000, describing the graphite, lithium, uranium and titanium deposits, minerals that Mr Trump is interested in. Inhulska uranium mine, where he worked for about 23 years, is three miles from his front door.

The history of uranium extraction here, for over 60 years, shows how difficult it is to use minerals, even if there is a lot of interest.

In 1963, Soviet geologists drilled a well inhul river in the valley, near Kropyvnytkyi city to get water nearby. They found radiation. The main samples showed high levels of uranium.

It was considered a jackpot. The Soviet Union was in a nuclear race with the United States. Moscow quickly poured the “River of Money” to the development of this first mine, finishing in just four years, Mr Savytskyi said.

He arrived in the area in 1973 – an intact cold soldier who is part of a secret geology study group – and began working on what was considered a much richer uranium field under kropyvnytskyi. If someone asked what he was doing when he dug up the main samples in the city center, Mr Savytskyi said he was looking for construction materials.

It took 10 years to develop this deposit, which, together with Inhulsky’s mine, became part of the public -managed Eastern mining and processing plant, which is now one of the world’s largest uranium mining equipment.

But in 1986, the Chernobyl disaster about 270 miles northwest, the largest nuclear device in world history, reduced Moscow’s enthusiasm against Ukrainian Uranus. Mr Savytskyi’s studies lost funding.

In 1996, five years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mr Savytskyi began to work in the Inhulska mine. Over the years, it had its own problems: the mine was not always cost -effective; Employees were not always paid. For some time, nepotism and corruption were endemic, Mr Savytskyi said. Employees often had health problems caused by radiation exposure.

Liudmyla shestakova working with an environmental non -profit organization Flora Kropyvnytskyi, now 220,000, took The New York Times on a tour of the Inhulska mine to see the remaining residual hills that surround it.

These waste is easy to radioactive. When the wind blows or rains, the results are expected to be bad for the environment. The Ukrainian environmental rules are lagging behind the West: asbestos were not banned until 2017. Radon seems ubiquitous.

Just outside kropyvnytskyi people fill the mugs with water from the nearby spring, which removes the mine runoff. (They also in that spring, even in the crunchy mornings of February.)

65 -year -old Ms. Shestakov said she usually believes that US investment could improve things, reflecting the resistant benefit that Americans still have against Ukraine, even with current tension.

“If the investment is happening and is done responsibly – not with the reckless mining industry – we fully support it,” she said.

But Mrs Shestakova expressed concern that Mr Trump’s latest proposal was one -sided. She is worried that Ukraine will return its natural resources without guarantee investment, environmental protection or national security.

“It’s as if Ukraine had not received anything at all,” she said.

The cemetery under the Uranus Mountain, 65 -year -old Nadiia Matsko recently visited the graves of family members; Her husband, who worked underground as a miner, later died of diabetes. She was pragmatic on the deal with the Americans.

“If these minerals sleep there and our people don’t get them, and now there is no profit, then if someone is doing it and we get a job and a certain percentage of the profit, then let them do it,” Ms. Matsko said, shrugging.

Mary Winnika, 64, is immersed in every morning in the spring, which includes a drain from the mine. Ms. Winnik is a librarian; Her son is on the front lines. She said she was constantly worried about how relations with the United States had worsened.

“When we had strong support, everything felt different,” she said, standing barefoot on the snow, wrapped in a towel. “There is a saying, ‘You may have it, but it will also remove the shirt from your back. “This is how I consider this agreement – we have to accept politics as an inevitable price, but this feeling is difficult.

Mr Savytskyi, who is a friend of Winnik and believes that her daily dipping is probably harmless, still lives in the same apartment that she has been given by the Soviet Union about 40 years ago. Geology books, such as “Overseas Uranus deposits”, are located near his favorite chair, as well as the many minerals he holds: granite basis, smoky quartz of inhulska mine, fluorite, onyx, gabbro, glaucania, all from deep in the land.

His head was full of minerals, but he had not forgotten the war. The nearby rocket strike that morning had caused a power outage. In 2022, according to him, his family practically lived in the basement of the building due to peeling.

“That’s why I support this contract,” he said. He added, “You understand that we are in the war and we need to defend ourselves. We are ready to work with anyone who helps us.”