President Donald Trump has proposed that the U.S. continue to provide Ukraine with financial/military support in exchange for access to its rare, valuable, and high-in-demand earth minerals.
“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” the president told reporters this week. “We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earths and other things.”
Listen:
“We’re looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they’re going to secure what we’re giving them with their rare earth metals and other things.”
There’s been speculation about this for months, but Trump publicly admitted it for the first time yesterday. pic.twitter.com/8yo5EBPkSI
— NewRulesGeopolitics (@NewRulesGeo) February 4, 2025
He doubled down on Friday, telling reporters that he plans to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week and that he’s interested in obtaining “an equal amount of something” in exchange for American aid.
Why are these minerals valuable and in demand in the first place? Because they’re used to make electric cars, smartphones, and other high-tech devices.
“A few rare earth elements are used in oil refining and nuclear power; others are important for wind turbines and electric vehicles; and more specialized uses occur in medicine and manufacturing,” according to the Science History Institute. “The rare earths have become crucial to modern life, but our dependence on them is mostly invisible to American consumers.”
They’re so crucial that they’re worth billions, if not more, according to retired Gen. Keith Kellogg.
“When you look at the mineral deposits in that country, we’re not talking millions of dollars. We’re talking — virtually every region, we’re talking about billions, and then some regions are [worth] trillions,” he told the New York Post earlier in the week.
“You can come up with a deal, and that’s what [Trump] has the Treasury looking at: ‘OK, how do you make a deal where aid is predicated off of the payback [of] precious metals?'” he added.
Kellogg went on to compare Trump’s strategy here with the strategy employed by the Bush administration during the Iraq War.
“When we walked out of the Iraq War, we don’t have a single oil contract in Iraq proper — they’re all in Kurdistan,” he explained. “Nothing. All the sacrifice went to no one. So I think the president is taking an economical look: ‘If you want to do this, there’s got to be something good for the American people,’ and that’s how he’s looking at it.”
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy signaled for his part on Friday that he’s open to the deal, telling Reuters, “If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal.”
“The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most,” he added. “And they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump.”
Zelenskyy offers Trump rare earth minerals from Ukraine in exchange of US military support against Russia pic.twitter.com/BoEFHhV7ru
— TRT World Now (@TRTWorldNow) February 8, 2025
This potential deal isn’t necessarily a novel idea. According to Ukraine’s existing “Victory Plan,” which was drawn up last year, Zelenskyy was always interested in supplying his allies with “natural resources and critical metals worth trillions of U.S. dollars.”
“Zelenskyy has been trying to develop these resources,” The Independent notes. “In 2021, he offered outside investors tax breaks and investment rights to help mine these minerals. These efforts were suspended when the full-scale invasion started a year later.”
“Anticipating the notoriously transactional Mr Trump might take an interest in this, Mr Zelenskyy then placed the mining of these minerals into his victory plan, which was drawn up last year,” the reporting continues.
There is a catch to all this, though. Roughly half of Ukraine’s rare earth deposits are currently under the control of Russia, meaning that the only way Zelenskyy could hand them over to Trump is if Ukraine were to first win its war.
Zelenskyy is, of course, fully aware of this.
“Ukraine possesses some of the largest strategic resource reserves in Europe, and protecting Ukraine also means protecting these resources,” he tweeted late Friday.
Strong security always has many elements, and each one matters. Ukraine possesses some of the largest strategic resource reserves in Europe, and protecting Ukraine also means protecting these resources. Resources that can either strengthen our state and our partners—or Russia and… pic.twitter.com/EcRCYRiGkm
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 7, 2025
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V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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