Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals as part of a push to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s penchant for a deal.
The US president, whose administration is pressing for a rapid end to Ukraine’s war with Russia, on Monday said he wanted Ukraine to supply the US with rare earths and other minerals in return for financially supporting its war effort.
“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelenskiy said, emphasizing Ukraine’s need for security guarantees from its allies as part of any settlement.
Photo: Reuters
Ukraine floated the idea of opening its critical minerals to investment by allies in fall last year, as it presented a “victory plan” that sought to put it in the strongest position for talks and force Moscow to the table.
Zelenskiy said less than 20 percent of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including about half its rare earth deposits, were under Russian occupation.
Rare earths are important in the manufacture of high-performance magnets, electric motors and consumer electronics.
Zelenskiy said Moscow could open those resources to its allies North Korea and Iran, both sworn US enemies.
“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” he said.
Russian troops have been gaining ground in the east for months, throwing huge resources into an unrelenting offensive, while Kyiv’s much smaller army grapples with a shortage of soldiers and frets over future weapons supplies from abroad.
On Friday, Russia said its forces had seized the key mining town of Toretsk in east Ukraine, the biggest settlement Moscow claims to have captured since Avdiivka in February last year. Kyiv denied Russia had full control of the industrial hub.
Zelenskiy unfurled a map on a table in the heavily-defended president’s office in Kyiv, showing numerous mineral deposits, including a broad strip of land in the east marked as containing rare earths. About half of it looked to be on Russia’s side of the current front lines.
He said Ukraine had Europe’s largest reserves of titanium, essential for the aviation and space industry, and uranium, used for nuclear energy and weapons.
Many of the titanium deposits were marked in northwestern Ukraine, far from the fighting.
Ukraine has rapidly retuned its foreign policy approach to align with the transactional world view set out by the new occupant of the White House, Ukraine’s most important ally.
However, Zelenskiy emphasized that Kyiv was not proposing “giving away” its resources, but offering a mutually beneficial partnership to develop them jointly.
“The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most, and they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump,” he said.
Zelenskiy said Kyiv and the White House were also discussing using Ukraine’s vast underground gas storage sites to store US liquefied natural gas (LNG).
“I know that the Trump administration is very interested in it... We’re ready and willing to have contracts for LNG supplies to Ukraine, and of course, we will be a hub for the whole of Europe,” he said.
Trump on Friday said he would “probably” meet Zelenskiy next week, but the Ukrainian president did not confirm the meeting.
On the battlefield, Zelenskiy said that North Korean troops were back on the front line in Russia’s Kursk region, after reports Moscow had withdrawn them after sustaining heavy losses.
“There have been new assaults in the Kursk operation areas ... the Russian army and North Korean soldiers have been brought in again,” Zelenskiy said in his evening address.
Additional reporting by AFP
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