President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that as part of a potential “deal” with the Donald Trump administration, the United States and Ukraine could jointly develop mineral resources on Ukrainian territory. He said this in an interview with Reuters.
Zelenskyy emphasized that Ukraine needs security guarantees from its allies as part of any war settlement and is open to concluding a “deal” with the United States.
“We have to stop Putin and protect what we have—the very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine,” he said.
Zelenskyy is open to an arms deal with Trump in exchange for minerals.
The president of Ukraine emphasized that Kyiv does not propose to “give away” its resources to the United States but to formalize a mutually beneficial partnership for their joint development.
“Americans have helped the most, and therefore Americans should earn the most. They should prioritize this issue, and they are committed to doing so. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump,” the president said.
He said that Russia knew in detail where Ukraine’s critical resources were located thanks to Soviet-era geological surveys.
Currently, less than 20% of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including about half of its rare earth deposits, are under Russian occupation.
Among other things, Ukraine has the largest reserves of titanium in Europe, which is essential for the aviation and space industries, as well as uranium, which is used in nuclear energy and weapons.
On February 3, US President Donald Trump said that he was interested in concluding an agreement with Ukraine to obtain rare earth metals and other resources in exchange for arms supplies.
Trump has not previously ruled out the possibility of purchasing American weapons for Ukraine with money received from frozen Russian assets.
