President Trump Says Ukraine Has Agreed to Hand Over $500 Billion in Rare Earth Metals to U.S. For Military Aid
President Trump reveals he’s spoken with Putin by phone, says Russian president ‘wants to see people stop dying’ in Ukraine war
By Victor Nava
February 13, 2025
President Trump claims that Ukraine has “essentially agreed” to give the US half a trillion dollars’ worth of rare earth minerals as payment for the military aid Washington has provided Kyiv.
WATCH: 𝔹𝕦𝕕 & ℂ𝕒𝕤𝕖𝕪… on X: "In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, President Trump said he told Zelenskyy the United States wants $500 Billion Dollars worth of rare earth and mineral to continue supporting the Ukraine war with Russia. Trump wants back the $Billions already spent by Ukraine on an https://t.co/69zeWs60ue" / X
“They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth [minerals], in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured, because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars [in Ukraine],” President Trump told Fox News “Special Report” host Bret Baier in an interview taped ahead of Sunday’s Super Bowl.
President Trump, 78, insisted that the US should have access to Ukraine’s natural resources regardless of whether a peace deal between Russia and the former Soviet state can be successfully negotiated, arguing that the “more than $300 billion” the US has provided Ukraine dwarfs what other nations have contributed to the war effort.
“They may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re going to have all this money in [Ukraine] and I say, I want it back,” the president said.
“I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth [minerals], and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” President Trump revealed.
“I said to them, ‘We have to — we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,’” President Trump continued, arguing that continuing to provide aid to war-torn Ukraine for nothing would be “stupid.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday signaled support for a reciprocal resource deal with the US in exchange for security guarantees as part of a potential peace settlement.
“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelensky told Reuters. “We need to stop [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region [in] central Ukraine.”
Map of critical raw materials of Ukraine.
Ukraine is home to roughly 5% of the world’s mineral resources, with rich deposits of titanium, uranium, iron, manganese and lithium — as well as rare earth minerals that are considered vital to US national security.
Ukraine holds about 7% of the world’s supply of titanium — the largest reserves of any European country — which is needed for the production of everything from aerospace and defense materials to medicine and jewelry. It is also used in other industries such as energy and construction.
The US does not maintain its own supply of titanium in the National Defense Stockpile, instead buying from other nations — including adversaries.
Ukraine also has one of the continent’s largest confirmed reserves of lithium — a vital component in batteries and used in everyday products from ceramics to medicine — at roughly 500,000 metric tons.
Crucially, while the Russian-occupied eastern Donbas region has about 20% of Ukraine’s mineral reserves — most of Kyiv’s most valuable assets are in the central, northern, and western regions of the country, out of Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin’s reach.
“We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region [in] central Ukraine,” Zelensky told Reuters.
In 2022, the US bought nearly $80 million worth of titanium from China and more than $63 million from Russia, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity.
“I think it’s going to happen,” President Trump said of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
President Trump reveals he’s spoken with Putin by phone, says Russian president ‘wants to see people stop dying’ in Ukraine war
“I think we’ve made tremendous progress in the last week. We’re dealing with the Russians. We’re dealing with the Ukrainians. I think there’s going to be something,” the president insisted.
President Trump wants a deal for Ukraine’s natural resources as ‘payback’ in exchange for aid stopping Russia attack: envoy
“They have the most fertile soil in the entire world,” he said. “The farmland is obviously being inhibited by the unexploded ordinance and things of that nature, but Ukraine has a lot to offer in terms of things that it could, you know, exchange back to the US for whatever is necessary.”
A US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, is expected to meet with Zelensky at the Munich Security Conference in Germany later this week and discuss how to end the nearly three-year war.
The Trump administration’s first big test on the international stage will take place at next week’s Munich Security Conference, which Kellogg will attend as part of the US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance.
Kellogg also told The Post he plans to visit with NATO leaders during his travel to discuss bringing Europe’s biggest and deadliest conflict since World War II to a close.
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