Trump targeting Ukraine's mineral wealth
Countries with natural resources such as rare earth minerals are becoming targets, often of military superpowers. Minerals such as lithium and graphite, which are rarer than other minerals, are examples of such minerals, ranking as high as oil and gas. This has made Ukraine a perfect target for the US.
The US, architect of many regime change policies, has put Ukraine under pressure.
The US has been accused of plotting the coup that led to the removal of the former Ukrainian president in order to stand up against Russia.
Washington used NATO to inch closer to Russia's borders and utilized Russian fear mongering to support anti-Russian sentiment in Europe.
Now that Trump is once again in power in the US, the tables have been turned, and the US is now targeting Ukraine's mineral wealth.
Ukraine's mines in hands of Trump
Could a joint investment fund between the US and Ukraine for the exploitation of the country's mineral resources become a deal for Zelensky's survival?
He has done quite well with the money flowing from Washington. Trump has called Zelensky a dictator.
The US is once again going after another country's resources, as they have done innumerable times, from oil rich countries in West Asia like Iraq to Ukraine.
Donald Trump is quite radically changing the US position on Ukraine. Previously, the United States, together with Canada and with the UK and the European Union, were real architects of tensions between Ukraine and Russia, starting from 2014 and much earlier.
The US allies in Europe, in Canada, considered as a direct competitor for the United States and nothing else, no more [sic]. And instead, he is trying to propose some deal, not only to Ukraine, but also to Russia, China.
To some extent, he was proposing a deal to Iran as well.
Oleg Barabanov, Department of EU Politics, European Studies Institute
We're going to be signing an agreement, which will be a very big agreement, and I want to thank Howard and Scott for the job you guys did in putting it together.
Really did an amazing job, and that'll be on rare earth and other things.
US President, Donald Trump
So the Ukrainians are claiming that they have some 5% of the world's rare earth metals in their territory. That is to say, in internationally recognized Ukrainian territory, which is not the same as what Kiev actually controls right now, of course, however, even this figure is disputed.
There are reports out there which suggest that that has been overestimated and that Ukraine does not have as much as it claims, which brings into question the whole nature of the deal.
James Nixey, Chatham House Director, Russia-Eurasia Program
Now Trump is asking monetary compensation for it. It was a total surprise for Zelensky, for the President of Ukraine, because he was openly saying that he never thought that Ukraine was doing the war on the debt basis, on the credit basis.
Oleg Barabanov, Department of EU Politics, European Studies Institute
As Ukraine is a country at war, as it is a country that is under occupation in parts of its territory, then this brings into question the fact that any war is a huge variable, the outcome of a war.
So whether a deal is done or a victory is achieved on the battlefield will have an effect on the deal itself.
It does seem rather premature to agree on a deal when you don't know who looks into the deposits. You don't know who's controlling them.
James Nixey, Chatham House Director, Russia-Eurasia Program
Ukrainian corruption
On February 2, 2025, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said he had only received $75 billion of the $175 billion the United States had spent on Ukraine.
There were accusations leveled against Ukraine that the aid money had been stolen since there were many corrupt officials in Ukraine.
But, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, aid to Ukraine is a misnomer because more than half of the aid does not go directly to Ukraine.
Actually, 60% of the aid is spent in the United States, about 25% is spent in Ukraine, and the final 15% is spent globally.
Was the US responsible for the 2014 coup de etat against President Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine?
The United States, but not only the US, also the European Union and Canada were behind the regime change of Ukraine in 2014, that was absolutely true, and there are famous pictures and famous videos of Victoria Nuland in the Ukrainian capital, just promoting the protests.
The interests of the United States, but also the Europeans, are tied to the Ukrainian natural resources.
This was absolutely transparent and clear starting from the beginning.
Oleg Barabanov, Deputy Director, European Studies Institute
I'm dealing with President Zelensky. I'm dealing with President Putin. I'm trying to get the money back that or secured because, you know, Europe has given $100 billion, The United States has given $350 billion because we had a stupid, incompetent president and administration, 350 but here is worse.
Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back. We gave it in the form of nothing.
So I want them to give us something for all of the money that we put up.
US President, Donald Trump
(There are) a couple of issues. First of all, our knowledge based on the Ukrainian resources, rare earths, titanium, manganese and others, is not sufficient. So we need more information about the commodities which are located in Ukraine. Secondly, a huge problem for the US is that there are not so many companies who are able to mine and to process these rare earth elements, because, for almost two decades Chinese companies have dominated this sector.
So it's easy to say, on a political level, let's get these critical elements from Bucha in, but on a practical level, it's not so far clear which companies, Americans, British or German or whatever, companies will be able to do this right now, when the war continues.
Jakob Kullic, Political Scientist
It’s not only rare-earth metals, but also the Ukrainian coal, the Ukrainian steel, and also the products of Ukrainian Agriculture, because Ukraine has very fertile black soil and many, many quantities of the Ukrainian agricultural lands were rented or sold to American and other Western companies.
Oleg Barabanov, Deputy Director, European Studies Institute
If Trump and Zelensky sign Washington's minerals deal, Ukraine will be forced to give its mineral wealth to the US for generations.
The full details of the deal haven't been decided yet, but the idea is that Ukraine will have to pay back a huge portion of the aid used to sustain the war through sales of its rare earth minerals, such as lithium and titanium, as well as oil and natural gas.
What do you make of the US supporting the Ukraine war effort and suddenly demanding its mineral resources?
As far as the minerals deal is concerned, it is unique in that the idea behind it is to transform the current contested boundaries between the Ukrainian troops and the Russian troops, the Ukrainian Front Lines and the Russian front lines, into a prosperity sphere.
And so this is because most of the mineral deposits are found precisely in this contested region. So this is why Russian President Putin has made his own minerals offer. Because so much of the earth deposits are underneath land that he currently occupies.
You can bring in American and European and other international companies to invest a lot of money in obtaining, you know, land use rights and mining equipment and workers and the like, and make the disputed area an international prosperity sphere where all these investors are making money that would deter the Russians from invading ever again.
So it's a soft security guarantee. It's not troops, but it's a vibrant and prospering national presence.
Steve Turley, Scholar and Speaker
Why does Trump want Ukraine's minerals when there are far greater supplies of lithium, graphite and titanium elsewhere, including in the US and China?
China processes more rare earth minerals than any other country, representing between 50% and 75% of global supply.
Both the US and Europe are trying to reduce their dependency on Beijing.
Was the US responsible for the 2014 Ukraine coup d'etat?
It's a very good question. It's a very fair question, whether this is all part of this historical pattern of the US Deep State, you know, going in, creating havoc in a region, only to financially plunder it.
More Americans today now recognize that our government has been engaged in overthrowing or trying to overthrow, governments for decades. A lot of us did not realize that until we saw it basically happen here with President Trump.
So tens of millions of Americans are realizing, or they believe, that their own Deep State has been trying to do to Trump what they've been doing to other nations for years.
It would certainly be understandable to see this minerals deal as part of what we might call a pillaging pattern that would follow from all of this.
Steve Turley, Scholar and Speaker
Even though the global rare earth supply continues to be relatively stable with a few exceptions, rare earth elements, because of their strategic significance, do, unfortunately, tend to feature in broader geopolitical disputes.
And so the elements that are under question with respect to Ukraine are currently located in areas that are Russia controlled. And so gaining or regaining access to those deposits, not only for the US, for Ukraine and Western allies, is something that has larger geopolitical significance.
Julie Michelle Klinger, Geographer
My one problem with that interpretation is that Victoria Nuland and these other actors were very much part of the old liberal international order, what's often referred to as the unipolar world, where America tried to run the world as the sole economic and military superpower.
Steve Turley, Scholar and Speaker
When it comes to the deal that the US President Donald Trump wants to make with Ukraine, the Ukrainian president has two major concerns, firstly, whether the US can provide security guarantees for Ukraine, and, secondly, he doesn't want generations of Ukrainians to pay for this.
According to the UN, Ukraine holds 5% of the world's known reserves of rare earth minerals, including 22 of the 34 most critical for national security.
Some 40% of the mineral deposits are estimated to be in eastern Ukraine, in areas under Russian control.
This includes some 19 million tons of proven reserves of graphite, which the state run Ukrainian Geological Survey says makes the nation one of the top five leading countries for the supply of this mineral. Graphite is used in the production of batteries for electric vehicles.
Ukraine has 7% of Europe's supplies of titanium, a lightweight metal used in the construction of everything from airplanes to power stations. It is also home to a third of all European lithium deposits, the key components in current batteries.
The US president has pivoted to Russia to do business deals with it, yet he has described the EU as "created to screw the US". What do you think that Donald Trump is thinking?
Trump is now quite radically changing the US position on Ukraine, on Russia and on Europe, on the European Union, because it's in his businessman entrepreneur logic.
He understands quite well that the US is spending money, endlessly, for purposes which don’t contribute to the US economy and all the smaller partners of the United States, including Europe, including Canada, including Ukraine.
They are just asking for money, and there are many ridiculous things, from grants of the US aid agency that Trump and Elon Musk now are reforming very radically.
Oleg Barabanov, Deputy Director, European Studies Institute
The agreement has been arranged based on a joint investment fund. The deal has been introduced as a tool for the financial rebuilding of Ukraine, for the US to invest alongside Ukraine in a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine.
However, in practice, it's a different story. Majority ownership of the fund's equity and financial interests, including decision making authority, will be under US control. In other words, a considerable share of the profits will be handed to the US.
Another sign of us control comes in a different form, and may be highlight the ulterior motives for this deal.
On the one hand this can affect Europe's energy security and the continent's reliance on new resources.
The US president is keen to do a deal with Ukraine while it has drummed up the Russian threat to European countries. He has even pivoted toward Russia to do business deals with it. Yet he has described the EU as "created to screw the US'. What do you think Donald Trump is thinking?
I think President Trump really does believe that the old liberal international order is dead. He sees institutions like NATO and the EU and the WTO as organizations that really belong to an age that no longer exists.
And he sees Russia and China as part of a new civilizationalist world that's reorganizing around religion and nationalism and tradition. But if that's the case, then all of a sudden, I mean, frankly, to the elite's shock, if the liberal international order no longer exists, well then the European Union being a part of that old departed order is now suddenly told it's irrelevant, that it doesn't matter anymore, including, at least in part, Ukraine.
So I think Trump clearly sees Ukraine as basically a proxy war between NATO and Russia. It's long been argued by liberal internationalists like George Soros that Russia, even after the fall of the Soviet Union, represented really the last major, massive obstacle to a truly globalist order.
China, back at the time in the 1990s was still playing nice with the West, but they argued that if they were able to combine NATO weapons technology with Eastern European troops, particularly Ukrainian troops, they could ultimately defeat Russia and thus remove the final obstacle to the total dominance of the liberal international order.
So that's really what the Maidan revolution was all about. That's what arming Ukraine and with NATO weapons to fight in the Donbas, the Donbas separatists.
That's what it was all about. And I think Trump recognizes that this war in Ukraine really is the outworking of NATO technology combined with Ukrainian troops to try to defeat Russia.
Steve Turley, Scholar and Speaker
The Ukraine mineral deal has not been signed yet. As they say, it's not over until it's over.
The US is trying hard to get this deal signed since it would lessen its reliance on China's rare earth minerals, and it would also like to make Europe rely more on the US for its rare earth minerals, which, at minimum, will be used as a bargaining chip, in its trade with Europe.
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