(Reuters) – Ukraine and the United States need to discuss the fate of mineral deposits in areas captured by Russia, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, as Washington negotiates with Kyiv to open up Ukraine’s natural wealth to U.S. investment.
The talks on a minerals deal, presented to Kyiv on Wednesday by U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, coincide with a bid by President Donald Trump to kick-start negotiations to end Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Zelenskiy in an NBC interview broadcast on Sunday questioned if minerals in areas occupied by Russia would be given to Russian President Vladimir Putin and his partners Iran, North Korea and China.
“It seems to me important to understand what we will do with those rare earths that now cost billions, hundreds of billions, that Putin occupied,” Zelenskiy said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Is it to give to him? … This is what I want to discuss.”
The United States has so far provided tens of billions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine since Russia invaded three years ago and Trump has said a minerals deal could ensure “that we’re going to in some form get this money back.”
Trump has said that he backs Ukraine but has not committed to continuing vital military assistance.
Three sources told Reuters on Saturday that the United States had proposed taking ownership of 50% of Ukraine’s critical minerals. Zelenskiy said on Friday, after meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance, that talks were continuing on a possible deal.
‘HELP US DEFEND THIS’
Zelenskiy has said that the draft deal does not yet contain the security provisions that Kyiv needed. Zelenskiy elaborated on that during the “Meet the Press” interview, which was filmed on Friday and broadcast on Sunday.
“Help us defend this, and we will make money on this together. And here it’s very important that in this document shall be a term to protect it. And that is the security guarantees,” Zelenskiy said.
“If we are not given the security guarantees from the United States, I believe that the economic treaty will not work. It must all be fair. The second part that is not discussed yet but it must be, that is what Putin captured,” he said.
The minerals in Ukraine include rare earth varieties as well as titanium, uranium and lithium, among others.
Zelenskiy, in a meeting with U.S. senators on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, said he tried to illustrate how Ukraine could be an alternative source of rare earth minerals, citing titanium as an example.
“We say that we have titanium in Ukraine … and it is sufficient for industry for 40 years. Forty years,” he told NBC. “And today you import titanium from China and from Russia and from other sources, but these are the two main countries.
“We say, ‘Let us defend titanium in Ukraine, and you will not need to pay money neither to Russia nor to China’,” he said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols, Yuliia Dysa and Ron Popeski; Writing by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Mark Porter)
