By President Donald Trump says he wants access to Ukraine’s bonanza of 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 Republican senators and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who sought to appeal to Trump’s dealmaker persona as a way of keeping alive Washington’s 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 in the Oval Office on Monday. “I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”
As well as being a global breadbasket — Ukraine is a huge supplier of wheat and other agricultural commodities — the country also has a rich seam 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.
A titanium ore quarry in Ukraine in 2021.Yuliia Burlachenko / Alamy Stock Photo
Trump’s comments Monday came as Ukraine and its European neighbors 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 Monday that “we’re going to stop that ridiculous war.”
That impulse has prompted nervousness among Kyiv’s supporters that Trump may try to force a ceasefire favorable to Russian President Vladimir Putin. With Russia making steady battlefield gains, Putin has shown no appetite for a truce without significant territorial gains and a promise Ukraine will never join NATO.
Zelenskyy has said in the past that he sees the war as one between Russia and the West, not just Ukraine, and as such has implored Western countries to provide more weaponry.
The Ukrainian president has also made positive comments about working with Trump — some analysts say that he has little choice — and now there appears to be some agreement on the subject of rare earth minerals.
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.
Ukrainian soldiers, pictured in Chasiv Yar on Jan. 27, have been pushed back by Russia in recent months.Wolfgang Schwan / Anadolu via Getty Images
That’s partly due its vast “Belt and Road” infrastructure project through which it has developed ties to resource-rich countries. But also its willingness to process these environmentally damaging materials on behalf of Western countries, which until recently have been happy to offload this burden.
Ukraine is a key player, too, with upward of 5% of the world’s mineral supply, according to its national Geological Association. Many of those crucial minerals are under the frigid trenches and minefields in eastern Ukraine, however, and at risk of falling into the hands of Putin.
Commenting on Trump’s interest in rare earth minerals, Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv on Tuesday that his country was open to investment by American companies, Reuters reported.
On Monday 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, graphite that Ukraine says are worth trillions of dollars.
Trump appearing to adopt this plan shows Zelenskyy’s success in appealing to the president’s dealmaker instinct, according to Orysia Lutsevych, head of the Ukraine Forum at Chatham House, a London-based think tank.
“Zelenskyy knows how Trump likes to make deals, and this plan was to make Ukraine an asset, not a liability,” Lutsevych said. “But we still do not know Trump’s strategy. We know bits of it but he says very little, and we only know what he says.”
Trump shakes hands with Zelenskyy in Paris in December.Telmo Pinto / SOPA / LightRocket via Getty Images
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.
Though many in Europe still fear that Trump may hand Putin a win, Ukrainians themselves appear to trust the American president more than their E.U. counterparts. A December poll by the New Europe Center, a Ukrainian nongovernmental organization, found more than 44% of respondents said they trusted Trump — higher than most other European countries.
One of those maintaining a positive outlook is Taras Byk, 41, a consultant and civil activist in Kyiv. He told NBC News that the rare-earth proposal would be a “win-win scenario for both Ukraine and the USA.”
“We would like to cooperate as equal partners,” he said, “if this exchange will lead to the retreat of Russia, such an option is much better than war.”
Alexander Smith reported from London and Daryna Mayer from Kyiv.
