Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has praised a deal that would allow Russia to pay for its massive invasion of its neighbor by granting Ukraine access to the country’s rare earth minerals.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he wanted “equalisation” from Ukraine for Washington’s “close to” $375.8bn in support.
“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths”, Trump said.
He continued, “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to get what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.”
According to the German Kiel Institute, which tracks the world economy, the US has allocated 88.33 billion euros ($92bn) to Ukraine from January 2022 to October 31, 2024.
Germany, Ukraine’s second biggest supporter, gave $16.3bn, followed by the UK at $15.3bn.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised Trump’s suggestion as “very egotistic” and “very self-centred”, arguing that Kyiv will need its natural resources to finance rebuilding after the war ends.
Here’s what we know about Ukraine’s rare earth minerals:
What are they?
Rare earth minerals are a group of 17 heavy metals – the 15 lanthanides on the periodic table, scandium and yttrium – that are found on the Earth’s crust worldwide.
Because the minerals are used to produce electric cars, phones, and other high-tech products, demand has increased in recent years.
There were 110 million deposits of rare earth materials in the world in 2023, according to the US Geological Survey (USGS).
The largest producer of the minerals is China, which extracts at least 60 percent of the world’s supply. China also processes at least 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, giving it a “near monopoly”, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in 2024.
Additionally, China has filed countless processing technology patents.
The US imports how many rare earth minerals?
The USGS estimated that the US imported 190 million pounds of rare earth compounds and metals in 2023, a 7% decrease from the previous year.
It added that in 2024, the US was reliant on China, Malaysia, Japan and Estonia for 80 percent of its rare earth needs.
Besides those 17 heavy metals, the US is also seeking other critical minerals, including tungsten, tellurium, lithium, titanium and indium.
Ukraine claimed that six locations in the nation house its rare earth materials and other crucial minerals.
In 2023, Forbes business magazine estimated that Ukraine’s mineral resources amounted to 111 billion tonnes, mainly coal and iron ore, worth $14.8 trillion.
However, more than 70 percent of the resources are in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia partly controls.
Minerals are also found in Dnipropetrovsk, which borders the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, which Russia illegally annexed in 2022. Russian troops are currently moving there.
Although the Crimean Peninsula is a mineral-rich place, Russia annexed it in 2014.
In 2022, Ukraine said it was one of the world’s top 10 countries for proven reserves of titanium, making up 7 percent of global production.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, stated to reporters at a press briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday that he had first proposed granting the US access to its rare earth minerals in September.
Zelenskyy claimed that allies who supported Ukraine during the war were willing to invest in it.
We are aware that all of this can be improved with the assistance of our partners, who are assisting us in defending our land and bringing down the enemy with their weapons, presence, and sanctions packages. And this is absolutely just”, he added.
Zelenskyy’s “victory plan,” which was announced last year as a means of ending the nearly three-year-long war, also described the concept as an “important economic point.”
What has Russia said?
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s comments suggested Ukraine should “purchase assistance”.
According to Peskov, according to the Russian news agency TASS, “It means that there will no longer be any free or other kind of assistance,” but it will be provided on a commercial basis.
Source: Aljazeera
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