President Volodymyr Zelensky supports a strategic partnership with the United States in the extraction of rare earth metals in exchange for support.
He said this in an interview with Reuters.
"If we are talking about an agreement, then letʼs conclude an agreement, we are only in favour," Zelensky said, emphasizing that any agreements should include security guarantees for Ukraine.
Zelensky said that less than 20% of Ukraineʼs mineral resources, including about half of its rare earth deposits, are currently under Russian occupation. The president stressed that Moscow could hand over access to these resources to its allies, North Korea and Iran, which are adversaries of the United States.
“We must stop Putin and protect what we have — the rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” he said.
According to the president, Ukraine has the largest reserves of titanium in Europe, which is critical for the aviation and space industries, as well as significant deposits of uranium, which is used for energy production and nuclear weapons. Many of these deposits are located in northwestern Ukraine, far from the war zone.
However, Zelensky emphasized that Ukraine does not propose to "give away" its resources, but seeks to develop them together with allies.
"The Americans have helped us the most, so they should get priority access to these opportunities. And they will get it. I want to discuss this issue personally with President Trump," Zelensky said.
In addition, Ukraine and the United States are discussing the possibility of using Ukrainian underground gas storage facilities to store American liquefied gas.
"I know that the Trump administration is very interested in this... We are ready to sign contracts for the supply of LNG to Ukraine and become a gas hub for all of Europe," he emphasized.
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.
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