United States President Donald Trump has touted a deal to gain access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as payment for Washington’s wartime support to Kyiv during Russia’s full-scale invasion of its neighbour.
Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that he wanted “equalisation” from Ukraine for Washington’s “close to” $375.8bn in support.
“We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” Trump said.
“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 added.
According to the German Kiel Institute, which tracks the world economy, the US has allocated 88.33 billion euros ($92bn) to Ukraine from January 2022 to October 31, 2024.
Germany, Ukraine’s second biggest supporter, gave $16.3bn, followed by the UK at $15.3bn.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz criticised Trump’s suggestion as “very egotistic” and “very self-centred”, arguing that Kyiv will need its natural resources to finance rebuilding after the war ends.
Here’s what we know about Ukraine’s rare earth minerals:
What are they?
Rare earth minerals are a group of 17 heavy metals – the 15 lanthanides on the periodic table, scandium and yttrium – that are found on the Earth’s crust worldwide.
In the past few years, demand has grown for the minerals because they are used to make electric cars, phones and other high-tech devices.
According to the US Geological Survey (USGS), there were 110 million deposits of rare earth materials worldwide in 2023.
The largest producer of the minerals is China, which extracts at least 60 percent of the world’s supply. China also processes at least 90 percent of the world’s rare earths, giving it a “near monopoly”, the Center for Strategic and International Studies reported in 2024.
China has also filed thousands of patents on processing technology.
How many rare earth minerals does the US import?
The USGS estimated the value of rare earth compounds and metals imported by the US in 2023 was $190m, a 7 percent decrease from the year before.
It added that in 2024, the US was reliant on China, Malaysia, Japan and Estonia for 80 percent of its rare earth needs.
Besides those 17 heavy metals, the US is also seeking other critical minerals, including tungsten, tellurium, lithium, titanium and indium.
Ukraine said its rare earth materials and other critical minerals are in six locations across the country.
In 2023, Forbes business magazine estimated that Ukraine’s mineral resources amounted to 111 billion tonnes, mainly coal and iron ore, worth $14.8 trillion.
However, more than 70 percent of the resources are in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia partly controls.
Minerals are also found in Dnipropetrovsk, which borders the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions, which Russia illegally annexed in 2022. Russian troops are currently advancing there.
The Crimean Peninsula is also rich in minerals, but it was annexed by Russia in 2014.
In 2022, Ukraine said it was one of the world’s top 10 countries for proven reserves of titanium, making up 7 percent of global production.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at a briefing in Kyiv that he had first floated the idea of giving the US access to its rare earth minerals in September.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine was open to investment from allies helping it in the war.
“We are open to the fact that all of this can be developed with our partners, who are helping us to defend our land and pushing the enemy back with their weapons, their presence and sanctions packages. And this is absolutely just,” he added.
Zelenskyy also called the idea an “important economic point” in his “victory plan”, which was announced last year as a pathway to end the nearly three-year-long war.
What has Russia said?
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Trump’s comments suggested Ukraine should “purchase assistance”.
“It means that there will no longer be any free or other kind of assistance, but it will be provided on a commercial basis,” the Russian news agency TASS quoted Peskov as saying.
It would be better if the US did “not provide any assistance [to Ukraine] at all, aiding efforts to end the conflict,” he said.