The Daily Populous Tuesday February 11st, 2025 evening edition
Authored by politico.eu and submitted by die_mannequin

“Otherwise, we're stupid. I said to them we have to — 'we have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money,'” he added.

Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, from lithium to titanium, which are vital to manufacturing modern technologies. It also has vast coal reserves, as well as oil, gas and uranium, but much of this is in territories under Russian control.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been dangling allowing the U.S. to develop his country's natural resources as a tactic to keep Trump on side. The idea was also part of Ukraine’s “victory plan,” a list of economic and security policies aimed at securing a just peace with Russia, which Zelenskyy presented to the country's allies last year.

“The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most,” Zelenskyy said Friday in an interview with Reuters. “I would also like to talk about this with President Trump.”

Trump, who hopes to beat China in the global race for resources, has voiced his desire to exploit Ukraine’s mineral abundance before.

Earlier this month, he told reporters in the Oval Office, “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.”

His remarks sparked a backlash from German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who slammed Trump’s transactional foreign policy style as “very egotistic, very self-centered.”

nikitagr on February 11st, 2025 at 07:03 UTC »

I’m Ukrainian and I’m willing to provide access to 500B of rare earths to US.

Those minerals are now in territory that’s controlled by Russia. Getting this deal means that Ukrainian territory gets back to Ukraine without thousands of our defenders dying. US infrastructure in Ukraine is the only measure I can think of that will make sure that the war will not restart after 4 or 5 years again. Digging 500B worth of material will require to build infrastructure in cities that are destroyed by war and need it. If there is something left after getting 500B of minerals to US we’ll be a rich nation.

Competitive-Ranger61 on February 11st, 2025 at 06:50 UTC »

Reminds me of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers.

He throws numbers around, like millions and millions..

oh no, billions and billions....

_heitoo on February 11st, 2025 at 06:49 UTC »

Well, the solution is simple, promise Trump $500B worth of rare earths, then renegotiate or renege on the promise a decade later. It's not like the US will have the political capital to enforce this agreement after Trump administration.