On February 24, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was ready to cooperate with Washington in developing rare earth mineral mines, including mines in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, as well as the provinces of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
President Putin noted that Russia will prioritize the development of its own rare earth minerals due to their strategic importance in many economic fields. However, he said Russia was ready to cooperate with international partners, including the US, if they expressed interest.
When asked on February 25 whether he and President Putin had discussed the possibility of reaching such an agreement, Mr. Trump admitted that he was interested.
RT said, answering reporters at the White House, President Donald Trump did not hide his excitement: "I want to buy minerals from Russia if I can... They have scarce land, oil and gas, and land with rich resources that have not been exploited. Such an agreement is entirely possible."
Notably, the Trump administration is also pushing for a similar deal with Ukraine. The press reported that Ukraine has agreed to the mineral deal proposed by US President Donald Trump. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is expected to travel to Washington on February 28 to sign the deal.
"I heard Zelensky would arrive on February 28. I would definitely agree if he wanted to sign with me and I understood it was a big deal. American taxpayers will get their money back," Trump said.
Meanwhile, President Putin remained calm on US ambitions to exploit Ukrainian minerals, stressing that this had no business with Moscow. However, he also noted that the real value of Ukrainian mineral mines is still a question mark.
Before the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, the country held Europe's largest reserves of titanium and lithium. While those metals are not classified as rare earth elements, they are important for the defense industry, as well as battery and power generation.
Ukraine's rare earth metals also include beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, lead coal, apatite, fluorite and Niken.
In 2023, Forbes Ukraine estimated that the country's mineral resources are worth about 14.8 trillion USD, equivalent to 111 billion tons, of which coal and iron ore account for the majority.
However, Forbes notes that more than 70% of these resources are in the Donetsk and Lugansk regions, which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 after the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev.
These territories are now under Russian control after the 2022 Referendum, when the regions voted to join Russia.
