The US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent brought a pilot project for a minerals agreement to Ukraine.
This is reported by Radio Liberty.
As a media correspondent reports, Volodymyr Zelensky said after meeting with Bessent that the Ukrainian side would "study all the details of the document" and make a decision.
"For my part, I will do everything to ensure that our team of government officials works over the next two days and that we have the opportunity to record specific agreements in Munich," the Ukrainian president said.
The US Treasury chief added that the draft
Scott Bessent became the first official from the Trump Administration to visit Ukraine.
What Ukrainian minerals are we talking about?
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.
President Zelensky emphasized that Kyiv is open to partnership on this issue.
Rare earth minerals are essential for the production of smartphones, batteries, magnets, lasers, and other modern technologies. Despite their name, they are not actually that rare, but they are difficult to extract and purify. These include lithium, graphite, uranium, and titanium.
On February 9, Trump said in an interview with the New York Post that he has a specific plan to end the war and wants to make a $500 billion deal with Volodymyr Zelensky for access to rare earth minerals and gas in Ukraine in exchange for security guarantees in a potential peace deal.
On February 11, the American president said that Ukraine had “essentially agreed” to transfer half a trillion dollars worth of rare earth metals to Washington as payment for American military aid.
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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