Bloomberg commentator Rafael Blas warned in a February 19 article that President Donald Trump's dream of a resource exploitation deal with Ukraine is an "illusion" and "serious mistake".
The story began in November 2024, when President Zelensky proposed a "victory plan" against Russia. The plan calls for special agreements with the West, including the US, on mutually protecting and exploiting Ukraine's available "ries".
The proposal attracted the attention of President Trump, who is believed to have asked Ukraine to give the US a $500 billion rare earth in exchange for military support.
However, according to commentator Blas, Ukraine does not actually have significant reserves of rare earths. Apart from some small scandium mines, the country does not possess any rare resources that are sufficient to meet Mr. Trump's huge expectations.
Blas said that Mr. Zelensky's team "had painted too much" about Ukraine's resource potential to attract attention from Mr. Trump, who tends to value mineral exploitation opportunities.
Blas also recalled a similar case: In 2010, the Pentagon declared Afghanistan "The Saudi Arabia of lithium", estimating the country to have $1 trillion in mineral reserves. However, in the end, this was proven to be "completely unpredictable".
Notably, there was previously information that Washington and Kiev discussed an agreement allowing the US to own 50% of Ukraine's rare earth resources in exchange for military aid. However, Mr Zelensky is believed to have refused to sign.
Before the conflict, Ukraine had significant output of iron ore and coal, but many mines are now under Russian control. Blas concluded: "Ukraine has devastated land, but there is no rare land".
