Ukraine requires clear security guarantees from the United States in exchange for US companies to break the country’s valuable minerals. At the same time, Washington wants half the profits on deposits that can be worth thousands of billions.
“It is not in our national interest right now,” says President Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
Ukraine has large reserves of several so -called strategic minerals. At the Ilmenit mine in Kirovohrad, the owners of foreign investors – preferably American and see a chance for the country to become a major player in the global mineral market. Ilmenite is used in titanium production.
Minerals a lure
Ukraine’s president has deliberately presented the rights to break the mineral resources as a lure, to get the United States to want to get involved in the country in the future.
Recently, Volodymyr Zelenskyj presented previously secretly stamped Soviet maps showing large unbroken assets of rare earth metals, which are needed in, for example, computers and batteries.
US requires 50 percent
US President Donald Trump initially seemed to snap. But when Trump sent his finance minister to Kiev this week, it turned out that the United States wants 50 percent of the value of Ukraine’s mineral resources – without offering the security guarantees the country wants continued Russian threats. It states the Washington Post.
“The mines are not mine”
During the ongoing security conference in Munich, Zelenskyj explained that he cannot sign any agreement that jeopardizes Ukraine’s long -term interests.
“These resources are not mine, I am a guarantee that our natural resources will benefit our children,” Zelenskyj told a group of international journalists.
Ukraine is now reported to work on a counter -bid.
Race on minerals
Global competition for strategic minerals is in full swing and China is far ahead, especially in the case of rare earth metals. Both the United States and various European countries would like to break the dependence on China.
– Ukraine is Europe’s largest mining country. It should be an opportunity for the EU, which is quite close, to strengthen the country and secure its own access to raw materials, says Magnus Ericsson, professor of mineral economics at Luleå University of Technology.