“For me is very important the connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment,” the Ukrainian president told AP.

The U.S. proposal apparently did not take into account how the deposits would be secured in the event of continuing Russian aggression. The official suggested the U.S. did not have “ready answers,” to that question and that one of their takeaways from discussions in Munich will be how to secure any mineral extraction operation in Ukraine involving people and infrastructure.

Any deal must be in accordance with Ukrainian law and acceptable to the Ukrainian people, the senior Ukrainian official said.

Ukraine is now preparing a “counter proposal” which will be delivered to the U.S. in “the near future,” the official said.

“I think it’s important that the vice president understood me that if we want to sign something, we have to understand that it will work,” Zelenskyy told the AP.