The Ukrainian leader has rejected an “excellent opportunity” by refusing to sign a “rare earths” deal with the US, a spokesman has told AP
Vladimir Zelensky © Getty Images / Sean Gallup / Staff The White House has criticized Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky as “short-sighted” for refusing to sign a deal that would grant Washington access to Ukraine’s mineral resources, The Associated Press (AP) reported on Monday. The proposal was reportedly a key topic of Zelensky’s recent talks with US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference. US President Donald Trump has recently demanded the “equivalent of $500 billion worth of rare earths” from Ukraine in exchange for what he estimates to be “more than $300 billion” that Washington has provided to Kiev in various forms of aid during its conflict with Moscow. However, Zelensky has pushed back, stating that he seeks a mutually beneficial “partnership” rather than simply handing over Ukraine’s natural resources. White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told AP on Monday that “Zelensky is being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump administration has presented to Ukraine.” Zelensky told the outlet over the weekend that he had blocked Ukrainian ministers from signing “a relevant agreement” because, in his view, “it is not ready to protect us, our interest.” The proposal was introduced during US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s visit to Kiev last week. Zelensky claimed that for him it is “very important” to preserve a “connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment.” According to senior Ukrainian officials familiar with the talks, the Washington-proposed deal did not specify security guarantees in return. One former senior official reportedly described it as “a colonial agreement.” Before the 2022 escalation of the Ukraine conflict, the country had Europe’s largest reserves of titanium and lithium, which are not rare-earths, but are critical for military industries, batteries, and capacitors. Around $7 trillion of Ukraine’s total mineral wealth is in its former Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk which joined Russia in 2022, according to Forbes.
Zelensky has also acknowledged that much of Ukraine’s mineral-rich territory is now under Russian control. The AP report pointed out that the US proposal apparently did not address how the deposits would be secured if the conflict between Moscow and Kiev continues. One of the Ukrainian officials who spoke to the agency suggested that Washington did not have “ready answers” to that question. Moscow has strongly criticized the potential deal. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has stated it would violate Ukraine’s constitution, which affirms that the nation’s natural resources belong to its people. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has also dismissed the proposed arrangement as a “commercial transaction,” saying that “it would be better not to provide aid at all, thus facilitating an end to the conflict.”
