Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to Trumpʼs statement about rare earth metals in exchange for aid to Ukraine. According to him, the country is open to cooperation.
He made this statement at a press conference with IAEA head Rafael Grossi.
"We are open to the fact that all of this [minerals] can be developed with our partners who help us defend our land and push the enemy back with their weapons, their presence, their sanctions packages. And that is absolutely right," he said.
According to Zelensky, he discussed this issue with Trump back in September of last year. At that time, he emphasized that Ukraine is open to investments from American companies entering the country, because if Russia seizes the territories, other countries will enter, including Iran and North Korea. American business is very interested in entering the Ukrainian market, Zelensky said.
He stressed that Ukraine is open to partnership not only on issues of minerals, but also nuclear energy. As an example, the president cited the Zaporizhzhia NPP, which is currently temporarily occupied by the Russians. Currently, Ukraine, due to shelling and occupation of territories, imports only 300 MW, although it has 6 GW.
What preceded
On February 3, the US President Donald Trump said he was considering exchanging Ukrainian rare earth minerals for more American aid.
"Weʼre looking to make a deal with Ukraine where theyʼre going to provide what weʼre giving them with their rare earth minerals and other things," Trump said.
These minerals are needed to make smartphones, batteries, magnets, lasers, and other modern technologies. Although they are called rare earths, they are actually not that rare, but they are difficult to extract and purify. These include lithium, graphite, uranium, and titanium.
In 2023, the Minister of Economy of Ukraine Yulia Svyrydenko said that Ukraine has the largest reserves of lithium, titanium and significant deposits of other minerals in Europe.
- In the fall of 2024, Volodymyr Zelensky presented a plan for Ukraineʼs victory over Russia. The plan contains five points. The fourth of them, the economic one, proposes concluding an agreement "on the joint protection of critical resources available in Ukraine, joint investment and use". Among such resources, the president named uranium, titanium, graphite and lithium, and estimated their value at "trillions of dollars".
- Babel asked two experts to explain the basics of this topic: journalist Volodymyr Boyko, founder of the publication nadra.info, and Doctor of Geological Sciences Natalia Bariatska, an expert of the State Commission of Ukraine on Mineral Resources.
For more news and in-depth stories from Ukraine please follow us on X.