President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that he himself had proposed to US President Donald Trump the idea that the United States should gain access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals in exchange for security and financial incentives.
He said this in an interview with The Guardian, Ukrinform reports.
Zelensky said that he proposed the idea of Ukrainian rare earth minerals to Trump back in September when they met in New York.
According to Zelensky, Ukraine has the largest reserves of uranium and titanium in Europe, and “it is not in the interests of the United States” for these reserves to end up in Russian hands and potentially be transferred to the DPRK, China, or Iran.
Zelensky now intends to return with a “more detailed plan” on opportunities for American companies to extract Ukrainian natural resources and help rebuild Ukraine after the war.
According to him, there is a financial incentive for the United States: “We are talking not only about security, but also about money … Valuable natural resources where we can offer our partners possibilities that didn’t exist before to invest in them … For us it will create jobs, for American companies it will create profits.”
As reported by Ukrinform, US President Donald Trump expressed interest in reaching an agreement with Kyiv on access to Ukrainian rare earth minerals, conditioning it on further assistance to Ukraine.
Earlier, Volodymyr Zelensky, presenting the Victory Plan in the Verkhovna Rada, said that Ukraine was ready to offer its strategic partners to conclude a special agreement on joint protection of critical resources, joint investment, and use of economic potential. We are talking about uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other strategically valuable resources.
Photo: OP
Source: Zelensky offers Trump access to fossil fuels: ‘It’s about security and money’
