MUNICH – Ukraine and the United States need to discuss the fate of mineral deposits in areas captured by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said, as Washington negotiates with Kyiv to open up Ukraine’s natural wealth to US investment.
The talks on a minerals deal, presented to Kyiv on Feb 12 by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, coincide with a bid by President Donald Trump to kick-start negotiations to end Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Mr Zelensky in an NBC interview broadcast on Feb 16 questioned if minerals in areas occupied by Russia would be given to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his partners Iran, North Korea and China.
“It seems to me important to understand what we will do with those rare earths that now cost billions, hundreds of billions, that Putin occupied,” Mr Zelensky said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “Is it to give to him? … This is what I want to discuss.”
The United States has so far provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded three years ago and Mr Trump has said a minerals deal could ensure “that we’re going to in some form get this money back”.
Mr Trump has said that he backs Ukraine but has not committed to continuing vital military assistance.
Three sources told Reuters on Feb 15 that the United States had proposed taking ownership of 50 per cent of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Mr Zelensky said on Feb 14, after meeting with US Vice-President J.D. Vance, that talks were continuing on a possible deal.
‘Help us defend this’
Mr Zelensky has said that the draft deal does not yet contain the security provisions that Kyiv needed. He elaborated on that during the Meet the Press interview, which was filmed on Feb 14 and broadcast two days later.
“Help us defend this, and we will make money on this together. And here it’s very important that in this document shall be a term to protect it. And that is the security guarantees,” he said.
“If we are not given the security guarantees from the United States, I believe that the economic treaty will not work. It must all be fair. The second part that is not discussed yet but it must be, that is what Putin captured.”
The minerals in Ukraine include rare earth varieties as well as titanium, uranium and lithium, among others.
Mr Zelensky, in a meeting with US senators on Feb 14 on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, said he tried to illustrate how Ukraine could be an alternative source of rare earth minerals, citing titanium as an example.
“We say that we have titanium in Ukraine … and it is sufficient for industry for 40 years. Forty years,” he told NBC. “And today you import titanium from China and from Russia and from other sources, but these are the two main countries.
“We say, ‘Let us defend titanium in Ukraine, and you will not need to pay money neither to Russia nor to China’.” REUTERS
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