Trump eyes rare metals alliance with Ukraine amid peace talks
The US president, Donald Trump, has expressed interest in Ukraine's rare earth metals. Kyiv was not surprised by this interest since the Ukrainian side had proposed joint extraction several months ago.
According to the portal RBC-Ukraine, which cites a source from President Volodymyr Zelensky's office, the proposal regarding rare earth metals was part of a peace plan.
It should be recalled that on Monday, President Donald Trump stated that he wants to negotiate a deal with Ukraine in which Kyiv would supply the United States with rare earth metals used in electronics in return for American aid.
Trump and Zelensky discussed this in the fall
- This was part of the victory plan. We have special resources, including rare earth elements, uranium, lithium, and titanium, and it's important that they don't fall into Russia's hands. That's why President (Volodymyr Zelenskyy - ed.) suggested that they should be specially protected and specially used with key partners, emphasized the RBC-Ukraine interviewee.
According to the source from RBC-Ukraine, this issue was indeed discussed by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, during a meeting with Donald Trump in the fall.
The source specified that security guarantees are necessary first to ensure protection of rare earth metals from Russian interests.
Rare earth metals, also known as rare earth elements, comprise a group of 17 chemical elements, which include scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium.
The American leader said on Monday during a conversation with journalists in the Oval Office that "We're looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they're going to secure what we're giving them with their rare earths and other things." He also added that "Ukraine is ready to do this."
Trump further highlighted that "great progress has been made" regarding Russia and Ukraine, though he did not elaborate on what he meant by this.
