The background of the Trump Plan: why the US wants the rare earths of Ukraine

“We seek to achieve an agreement with Ukraine according to which they would guarantee their rare earths and other things in exchange for what we give them,” said US President Donald Trump, at a press conference. Photo: EFE

February 4, 2025 Time: 16:02

The recent statement of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, on conditioning military aid to Ukraine in exchange for access to his rare earth reserves is in a context of an international competition for strategic minerals determining for world geopolitics.

Ukraine is considered as One of the main world suppliers of essential critical raw materials for industries such as defense, high technology, aerospace and green energy in a context of Dispute for supply chains especially between China and the United States.

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The manifestations of the US president, Donald Trump, can be understood in response to the fact that, In the race, China “has reached global domain in critical minerals” and that “this control extends to 85-90% of the world’s rare earth elements, from mining to refining, and 92% of the world manufacturing of magnets of rare earth elements,” according to the World Economic Forum , better known as Davos forum.

All this at a time when the development of artificial intelligence, the transition to electric vehicles and green energy leads to the forecasts indicating a greater demand for this type of resources. In fact, The critical mineral market has doubled in the last five years to exceed 320 billion dollars and is expected to double in the next five.

The Ukrainian loot

Ukraine is one of the 10 main world suppliers of mineral resources, with about 5% of the world total and It houses a wide variety of critical minerals with an estimated value of more than 10 billion dollarswhich makes it an important actor in the global supply chain.

The country is a provider of fundamental noble gases for the production of semiconductors and Ukrainian highly purified neon means 90% of the United States supply for high -tech chips production, A critical production in competition for the development of artificial intelligence. In fact, since the conflict began the value of the neon, one of these gases, multiplied by nine.

In 2023, ‘Forbes’ estimated the value of Ukraine mineral resources in 14.8 billion dollars of US dollars. At the same time, more than 70% of the total amount It comes from just three regions: Donetsk and Lugansk (which are partially occupied by Russia), as well as the Dnipropetrovsk region.

Before February 2022, Ukraine was a key titanium supplier (It has 7% of world reserves), crucial for the manufacture of military combat and armament aircraft. The possibility of Ukraine becoming a key supplier for the United States and the European Union has been under discussion since the beginning of the conflict. In 2023, a Newsweek report revealed that Washington saw in Ukraine an opportunity to diversify its titanium supply and other essential metals. Now, Trump’s proposal reinforces this perspective by conditioning military aid to privileged access to these resources.

In turn, according to estimates of The European Commission, the country has one of the largest unexplored lithium reserves, estimated at 500,000 tons, Vital for batteries, ceramics and glass.

Ukraine is also the fifth largest world producer of galliumessential for semiconductors and LED, has confirmed deposits of berylliumcrucial for nuclear energy and aerospace, military, acoustics and electronic industries, as well as uranium, essential for nuclear and military sectors. The country is also known for its important mineral reserves of iron and high quality manganese, crucial for the production of green steel. Ukraine supplied 43% of EU steel sheet imports in 2021.

Russia’s reaction and geopolitical implications

From Moscow, the Trump initiative has been interpreted as a confirmation that Western support to kyiv has more than humanitarian economic motivations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said the proposal of Converting military assistance into a commercial transaction confirms the nature of American warmongering policy.

For his part, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has warned that any solution to the conflict must consider the “realities in the field” and has reiterated that The supply of weapons to Ukraine only prolongs war. In this context, the struggle for Ukrainian strategic resources joins the already complex geopolitical dispute between Russia and the West.

Trump’s proposal introduces A new element in the war in Ukraine: competition for natural resources. Although the United States military support has been fundamental for kyiv’s resistance, conditioning that help to privileged access to rare earths reinforces the idea that conflict is also a struggle for the control of strategic resources.

The expressions of the US president were not only repudiated by Moscow, The German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, described the “selfish” plan at the informal meeting of leaders of the European Union (EU) in Brussels. Scholz, whose country is the second largest military donor in Ukraine after the United States, argued that these resources would be better used for reconstruction after the war.

As to kyiv, according to Ukrainian media, Volodimir Zelenskiya’s team has already negotiated with Donald Trump the access of the United States authorities to the rare land deposits of Ukraine. According to the ‘Suspilne’ channel, which refers to a source from the office of the president of Ukraine, after the presentation of the “Victory Plan” in autumn of 2024, the ‘Financial Times’ wrote that some points of the document were “Established” based on the possible victory of Donald Trump among which was from the extraction of rare earth metals.

Meanwhile, this Tuesday from kyiv Volodimir Zelenski said that his country is open to development with partners “that help us protect our territory” and said that Ukraine has “enough” rare lands, but stressed that “A part of our mineral resources” is not under its control.

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