One of the key campaign pledges President Donald Trump made during the 2024 election was to end the years-long war in Ukraine. The then-candidate stated that it was in the American interest to negotiate a deal to finish the war. Trump was also critical of the aid given to Ukraine, going so far as to call Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “one of the greatest salesmen” he’s ever seen.
However, President Trump is now stating that he wants “rare earths and other things” from Ukraine in exchange for aid. Although it is unclear whether the President desires the minerals in return for already received American assistance or for continued military aid to Kyiv, the Ukrainians see the proposal as a way to ensure more American support for the future.
A top Ukrainian official told the New York Times that the country would be ready to work with “the U.S. on mineral deals, provided the U.S. offers sufficient security guarantees to prevent these resources from falling into Russian hands.” This condition is similar to the one made in President Zelenskyy’s Victory Plan from October of last year which proposed to Ukraine’s partners that the country’s economic potential, which includes its “natural resources and critical metals”, would be offered for “the joint protection of the country’s critical resources.”
Most importantly, even if the Ukrainians and Americans agreed to a deal on rare earth, the question of how the minerals could be accessed to begin with is still up in the air. According to Agence France-Presse, “more than 70 percent” of Ukraine’s almost $15 trillion in mineral resources are in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which are “partially controlled by Russia, and Dnipropetrovsk, where Moscow’s forces are approaching.”
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