Why is Ukraine negotiating mineral treatment with the United States?

kyiv and Washington are close to signing an agreement on the United States access to mineral deposits in Ukraine, says a Ukrainian minister.

Olga Stefanishyna, VicePrimer Minister of European and Euroatlant Integration, He said in x that “the negotiations have been very constructive, with almost all the key details ended.”

He added that “we are committed to complete this quickly to proceed with his signature.”

Zelensky first included the offer of an agreement on minerals in the so -called “Victoria Plan” that presented Trump last September.

The idea was to offer the presidential candidate a tangible reason for the United States to continue supporting Ukraine.

Monday, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson told the BBC in Kyiv That such agreement was “the Grand Prix” because it would ensure “a commitment from the United States under Donald Trump with a free, sovereign and safe Ukraine.”

Kyiv estimates that approximately 5% of the “critical raw materials” in the world are in Ukraine. This includes about 19 million tons of proven graphite reserves, that the State Agency of the Ukraine Geological Service says that the nation is “one of the five main main countries” for the supply of the mineral.

Graphite is used to make batteries for electric vehicles.

Ukraine also has a third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries. And before the Russian invasion, the global participation of the production of Titanium of Ukraine, a light metal used in the construction of everything, from airplanes to power plants, was 7%.

In addition, Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earth metals. These are a group of 17 elements that are used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other vital products in the modern world.

However, some of the mineral deposits have been seized by Russia. According to Yulia Svydenko, Minister of Economy of Ukraine, the resources of $ 350 billion (£ 277 billion) remain in occupied territories today.

In 2022, SECDEV, a geopolitical risk consultant based in Canada, made an evaluation, which established that Russia had occupied 63% of Ukrainian coal mines, and half of their manganese, cesium, tantalium and rare earth deposits.

Dr. Robert Muggah, director of SECDEV, says that such minerals add a “strategic and economic dimension” in the continuous aggression of Russia. When taking them, he says, Moscow denies access income for Ukraine, expands its own resource base and influences global supply chains.

Critical minerals “are the basis of the 21st century economy,” explains Dr. Muggah. They are key to renewable energies, military applications and industrial infrastructure. They play “a growing strategic role in geopolitics and geoeconomy.”

In addition, the United States is interested in an agreement for Ukraine mineral resources because it wants to reduce China’s dependence, which controls 75% of rare earth deposits in the world, according to the geological investment group.

In December, China prohibited the export of some rare land minerals to the US, having previously limited mineral exports to the United States the previous year.

On Monday, before a visit with the French president Emmanuel Macron, the National Security Advisor of the White House, Mike Waltz, told US News Outlet Newsnation that the agreement was “on economic growth and unite the United States and Ukraine For the future “.

Before Stefanishyna’s statement that an agreement was close, there seemed to be several conflict points.

Last Wednesday, Zelensky rejected the US demands of a reported participation of 50% of its rare earth minerals, which Trump said he would reflect the amount of help that the United States had provided to Ukraine during his war with Russia.

“I can’t sell our state,” he said.

The provisions of a second draft of the agreement on Sunday seemed to be even more difficult than in the first document.

Instead of 50/50 income division, the revised draft suggested that the United States wanted total control, Zelensky told journalists at the press conference on Sunday.

It is also said that Zelenzky wants any agreement to include security guarantees.

On Monday, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Boris Johnson, called for an agreement for American access to the Minerals of Ukraine “The Grand Prize”.

He rejected the suggestions that the agreement was a “scam” and said that “what Ukrainians get from this is a commitment from the United States under Donald Trump with a free, sovereign and safe Ukraine.”

Some commentators have described the offer of the United States as “colonial”, but Kyiv is interested in the joint exploration of their resources.

The development of these mineral resources is extremely difficult and expensive, says Iryna Suprun, executive director of the Geological Investment Group, an Ukraine -based mining advisory firm. She argues that if they can attract US investors to develop their natural resources, it will be very beneficial for the country’s economy.

“We will get technologies that our mining industry lacks a lot,” explains Mrs. Suprun. “We will obtain capital. That means more jobs, tax payments. We will receive income from the development of mineral deposits.”