U.S. President, Donald Trump says he wants access to Ukraine’s rare earth and critical minerals in exchange for the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has been supplying to Kyiv.
It’s an idea previously suggested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who sought to appeal to Trump’s dealmaker personality as a way of continued US military support of Kyiv.
“We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth and other things,” Trump told reporters
. “I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”
As well as being a global supplier of wheat, grain, flour, Ukraine also has a rich deposit of rare earth and critical minerals.
Elements such as lithium, gallium and neodymium are crucial in producing a vast range of technologies that include electric vehicle batteries, solar panels and cutting-edge military hardware. As such, the U.S. and China among others have increasingly coveted them.
Trump’s comments came as Ukraine and its European neighbours anxiously awaited details of his plan to end the war in Ukraine that Russia launched with its full-scale invasion three years ago.
Though the president has offered few details of how peace might be achieved, his overriding complaint has been that European nations have not contributed as much as the $175 billion in assistance that makes America Ukraine’s biggest donor.
He also reiterated his long-held desire that “we’re going to stop that ridiculous war.”
China dominates the global market for rare earth metals, securing rights to mine some 60% and produce up to 90% of the world's supply, according to the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies.
This sue to China's "Belt and Road" infrastructure project through which it has developed ties to resource-rich countries and also its willingness to process these environmentally damaging materials on behalf of Western countries, which until recently have been happy to offload this burden.
Commenting on Trump’s interest in rare earth minerals, Zelenskyy on Tuesday told reporters in Kyiv that his country was open to investment by American companies..
His office welcomed Trump’s comments as “part of the Victory Plan that President Zelensky presented to President Trump in the fall,” but warned that “we must ensure the security of Ukraine and these resources so that Russia does not simply seize them physically.”
That so-called “victory plan,” proposed by Zelenskyy in October, offered “strategic partners” such as the U.S. “a special agreement” to access deposits of uranium, titanium, lithium, and graphite that Ukraine says are worth trillions of dollars.
When asked about Trump's comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that it was merely "an offer to buy aid" rather than "provide it on a free-of-charge basis."
"It is better, of course, not to provide it at all and thereby contribute to the end of the conflict,” Peskov added.
