Lindsey Graham, a Republican congressman for South Carolina, said that allowing Russia to win the Ukrainian conflict would cost the US access to Kiev's huge mineral resources.
Graham said that Washington cannot let Moscow win the conflict with Kiev because this would mean the US losing direct access to the huge mineral assets in Ukraine.
In an interview with CBS's "Face the Nation" on June 9, Graham said that if Russia wins the current conflict, it will take over Ukraine's assets and share them with China. Senator Graham described the prospect as lazy, saying it would be better if the gold mine was supplied to the United States.
Ukraine is sitting on an important mineral reserve worth between 10:00 and 12 trillion USD. They could be the richest country in Europe. If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we have ever dreamed of, that the USD12-12 trillion of important mineral assets can be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Russia and China, said nghiist Graham.
Graham, who has long had a hawkish view of Russia and is one of the most loyal supporters of Ukraine in the US Senate, has also called on the West to accelerate the seizure of $300 billion in frozen Russian assets. He reiterated his request to include Russia in the list of state sponsors of terrorism under US law. Because of this proposal, Russia added Congressman Lindsey Graham to the list of extremist and terrorist groups earlier this year.
A day before Graham's speech, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban argued that the West wanted Kiev to win the conflict with Moscow to control Ukraine's abundant resources.
In an interview with Hir TV, Prime Minister Orban accused the US and its allies of considering Ukraine a huge potential source of income that they could control if Russia were defeated.
He also said that the conflict was a great motivation for weapproviders, creditors and speculators in the West, saying that this was the reason why the conflict had lasted too long.
Moscow has repeatedly stated throughout the conflict that its goal is to protect the majority of the Russian-speaking population in Donbass from Kiev's repression and ensure Russia's own security against NATO's expansion to the country's borders.
Russia has never spoken about any intention to take over Ukraine's resources, but has repeatedly stressed that former areas of Ukraine have chosen to be annexed by Russia, including Crimea, which must be under Moscow's control.
