Wednesday, February 5, 2025 - 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.
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