Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has shot down President Donald Trump’s request for $500 billion in rare earth minerals in exchange for continued military aid.
The rare earth minerals, which are becoming increasingly sought after, are crucial to many types of technology including cell phones, electric vehicles, and hard drives.
“I want to have our money secured because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier during an interview last week. “They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”
BREAKING: President Trump says Ukraine has agreed to repay the aid by giving the United States $500 billion in rare earth minerals.
“They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas. I want to have our money secured because we’re spending… pic.twitter.com/JUIcAa8AsS
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 11, 2025
Counter to what Zelenskyy has now stated, Trump said that Ukraine had “essentially agreed” to the deal.
“We are going to have all this money in there, and I say: ‘I want it back.’ And I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earth,” Trump said in the interview. “And they have essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t feel stupid.”
According to a report from the Washington Post, citing seven unnamed sources, “Ukrainian officials are working on a counterproposal that would still offer Washington more access to the country’s natural resources but would bolster U.S. security guarantees for Ukraine.”
Zelenskyy told the press on Saturday that he has not agreed to the deal because it is “not ready yet.”
“We can consider how to distribute profits when security guarantees are clear. So far, I have not seen that in the document,” the Ukranian president told reporters.
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