Ukraine pushes back as Trump eyes 50% of its rare earth minerals

The United States has proposed owning 50 percent of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for possible military support.

Under the proposal, Ukraine would transfer partial control of its valuable mineral resources to Washington rather than make financial repayments for all the US support the country has received since the Russian invasion in 2022.

According to NBC News, which cited US officials, American troops would only be deployed to the European nation under the proposal if a deal is reached with Russia to end the war.

On Wednesday, US President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin, the Russian leader, has agreed to hold negotiations that would end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine.

Trump said the agreement was made in their very “long and productive” phone call.

Ukraine possesses several rare earth elements, which have a variety of applications across various industries.

Minerals like neodymium are used in wind turbines and electric vehicle (EV) batteries, while erbium and yttrium are used in applications that range from nuclear power to lasers.

Ukraine is also believed to have one of Europe’s largest reserves of titanium, a key component for the aerospace, medical, and automotive industries.

It also has rich deposits of lithium, graphite, and zirconium.

Earlier this week, Trump said the US would need $500 billion in Ukrainian minerals to repay it for the military and civilian support given to Kyiv since the start of the war.

A US government report pegged its total support to Ukraine as of September 30, 2024, at nearly $183 billion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky declined to sign the document when Scott Bessent, US treasury secretary, presented it during their meeting, according to NBC news.

The Ukrainian leader has previously expressed willingness to engage with the US in return for military support.

Zelensky said he “will do everything to review all details of the document,” NBC cited US officials as saying.

He gave more details on what the review would look like at a security conference in Munich on Saturday.

“We have to talk about it as investments, and it needs to be formulated correctly,” he said.

“And we can think about how to divide profits,” he added.

“All of this would be tied to security guarantees, and I still don’t see this connection with the security guarantees in the document yet.”

Trump has long flinched at the amount of American support for Ukraine.

He once described Zelensky as “the greatest salesman of all time”.