Zelensky welcomes Trump’s offer to continue U.S. military support in exchange for privileged access to Ukraine’s rare earth metals

https://meduza.io/en/news/2025/02/04/zelensky-welcomes-trump-s-offer-to-continue-u-s-military-support-in-exchange-for-privileged-access-to-ukraine-s-rare-earth-metals

47 comments

  3. What choice does he realistically have?

    Giving in to Trump’s demands carries a domestic risk for Zelenskyy though. Unless Trump massively increases aid to Ukraine which seems unlikely his domestic opponents will accuse him of selling out the country in return for a bit of aid that – while sufficient to slow down Russia’s advances – is not enough to stop them, let alone to turn the tide of the war.

  4. exactly what i said he should say yesterday. “You’re welcome to all the rare earth mateirals in donetsk, just help us get to them”.

    Russia will indoctrinate Ukranians into their depressive society AND mine the materials, america will just mine the materials and leave the people largely alone.

  6. I think Zelensky is subtlety hinting that this will only happen if Russia are pushed completely out of Ukraine as he is quoted as saying

    “…Russia has occupied our territory since 2014. Some of those areas contain large deposits of our mineral resources.”

  8. I expected Trump to go all in with helping Russia, so much better than that at least. 

  9. Just to be clear, this is not a Trump thing. [Senators were talking about this plan since last summer.](https://www.blumenthal.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/blumenthal-and-graham-on-visit-to-ukraine) A NYT article from December mentions that [a deal had already been reached, but the signing delayed by Ukraine specifically so Trump could take credit.](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/14/world/europe/trump-ukraine-russia.html) Biden’s team did the real work, but Ukraine wants Trump to have ownership of the deal so he’s less likely to back out.

  10. If US wants to expand it’s chip manufacturing, Ukraine’s rare earth metals will be needed. It’s a good deal. Protection for Ukraine while helping US chip industry.

  11. Take the deal now, break the deal later – if its ok for America, its ok for Ukraine. When you take the mines back, blame fentanyl or something

  13. Fingers crossed Trump keeps the pedal down on Russia. I don’t see it happening but man, it would be nice.

  14. Tell Trump about the incredibly valuable oil fields in Donbas and off the Crimean coast. Promise a decent cut and privileged access to american oil+gas companies for military support.

    Sounds quite fair to me.

    I’m a cynic but I think this entire war is about Russia:

    1. Preventing an existential crisis amount of Ukrainian oil+gas replacing their business in Europe. Then:
    2. Acquiring said oil for themselves

    Russia would have ceased to exist as a country (gas is nearly half their state revenue IIRC) if Ukraine had been able to exploit those natural gas reserves found around 2010-2012 which IMO is why they conquered Crimea. Why would Germany buy natural gas from Russia if Ukraine has a nice fat pipeline to them already and is a much friendlier partner? Russia would have been utterly fucked. They’re antagonistic and widely disliked for very good reasons. Literally everyone would rather buy oil from someone else. If Ukraine was anywhere close in price, all the oil+gas business would go to them just for risk avoidance reasons.

    Not to mention, with some help, Ukraine would have been able to use that money to shake off post-USSR corruption and Russian interference and strengthen their military, economy and national identity.

  15. Why do you think all this aid goes to Ukraine? It isn’t entirely out of goodwill.

    Keeping a buffer on Russia and then getting to be on the ground floor in its economic renovation.

  16. This seems like a good move on Ukraines part because if the US wants to get those resources out of the devastated war torn eastern region of Ukraine they are going to have to invest heavily into rebuilding Ukrainian infrastructure in those regions.

    Those mineral rights do fuck all if you can’t get the stuff out of the ground and out of Ukraine. To do that you’re going to have to rebuild the roads, bridges, rail lines. You’re going to have to rebuild the housing and cities to support the workers that will work to extract the materials. This deal basically makes sure that the US will have a vested interest in helping Ukraine back into its feet and restarting their economy.

  18. The intricacies here are actually pretty nuanced. Well played on Zelensky, figuring a way to pit against Russia is smart.

  19. Sets a bit of a rocky precedent though. The next time the US needs aid in a war, the first thing it’s allies will ask is “how much are you willing to pay/concede?”

  22. If I’m not wrong about where Ukrainian mineral reserves are located (entirely possible) wouldn’t this entail retaking the Donbas?

  23. As much as I hate Trump this is actually a reasonable agreement, IMHO. Hopefully it’s a win-win.

  24. Brilliant by ukraine to delay signing the agreement until trump took over and could claim credit.

  25. Rare earth metals?

    *There* it is. That’s what this whole thing has been about lol

  27. The real reason we’ve defended their “democracy.”

  28. I was half expecting this. Trump is a known entity to world leaders now and they know have easy it is to manipulate him. When all you got to do is make it seems like it was his idea it’s easy to get him to do what you want. To bad the other side of the aisle in this country is a bunch of cowards.

  29. Remember, get the support first before delivering the rare earth metals.
    A trump cannot be trusted to honour his debts.

  32. Hahaha I love Zelenskyy… he knows how to play the game better than almost anyone.

  33. Why are people annoyed by this? How is it different to lendlease and loans Ukraine has to pay back later? If you want the American public to continue supporting aid to Ukraine then this is a smart way to go about it.

    Also Western energy companies already had profit sharing agreements in place with Ukraine to pump/drill for gas/oil leading up to 2014. It’s the same thing

  34. [Article dated December 14](https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-delayed-minerals-deal-with-us-to-let-trump-take-credit-nyt-reports/). This was Zelenskys plan. Giving America access to Ukrainian mineral wealth was something that had been planned for months but after Trump won the election, was specifically delayed until he came into office. Because of the uncertainty for the future of aid to Ukraine, Zelensky is forcing Trump to provide aid. Because of Trump, MORE strings got attached from the USA perspective. The USA got a worse deal out of it.

    Luckily, everyone is happy: Trump gets to think he is great at making deals when he caused a worse deal to happen. Ukraine is happy because they’ve guaranteed more aid for themselves in exchange for nothing. Biden is happy to give up being the signatory in exchange for guaranteed Ukrainian aid. The cultists are happy because they think the USA is getting the best deal.

  35. A nice coincidence. Anything that pisses Putin off (we’re now seeing the sabre-rattling about this) is sure to get the interest of Zelenskyy. A fair trade imo

  36. This was already agreed to last year, but Zelenskyy postponed the announcement specifically to appeal to Trump’s vanity. https://kyivindependent.com/kyiv-delayed-minerals-deal-with-us-to-let-trump-take-credit-nyt-reports/

  37. This gloating is not going to help us the next time we need to deal with Shitler.

  38. So let me guess this straight: Ukraine is helping us destroy one of our most belligerent geopolitical adversaries with us providing a fraction of what we spend on our military and yet he still wants privileged access to their rare earth minerals?

  40. I know this is good and all for Ukraine, but it’s so a fucking American thing to do.

  41. So if Trump ends the Ukraine – Russian war is it going to be Biden big deal that he has been cooking up? Just trying to get ahead of it.

  43. I hate Trump and absolutely expected him to back Putin in someway. So this is something

  45. If Zelensky intentionally delayed this to make Trump feel like he can win and also have Ukraine get their territory un-invaded then he is a genius

  46. Wasnt “i dont want our money going to Ukraine instead of being spent at home” one of the biggest rallying cries for Dons supporters?

    Cant wait to see the backpedal here

  47. If this gets Russia out of Ukraine and I mean every square fucking inch of their territory including Crimea than yes have all the dirt you want

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