President Trump claims that Ukraine has “essentially agreed” to offer the US half a trillion {dollars} value of uncommon earth minerals as fee for the army assist Washington has supplied Kyiv.
“They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth [minerals], in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured, because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars [in Ukraine],” Trump instructed Fox Information “Special Report” host Bret Baier in an interview taped forward of Sunday’s Tremendous Bowl.
Trump, 78, insisted that the US ought to have entry to Ukraine’s pure assets no matter whether or not a peace deal between Russia and the previous Soviet state could be efficiently negotiated, arguing that the “more than $300 billion” the US has supplied Ukraine dwarfs what different nations have contributed to the conflict effort.
“They may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we’re going to have all this money in [Ukraine] and I say, I want it back,” the president stated.
“I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500 billion worth of rare earth [minerals], and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” Trump revealed.
“I said to them, ‘We have to – We have to get something. We can’t continue to pay this money.’” Trump continued, arguing that persevering with to supply assist to war-torn Ukraine for nothing can be “stupid.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday signaled assist for a reciprocal useful resource take care of the US in trade for safety ensures as a part of a possible peace settlement.
“If we are talking about a deal, then let’s do a deal, we are only for it,” Zelensky instructed Reuters. “We need to stop Putin and protect what we have — a very rich Dnipro region [in] central Ukraine.”
Ukraine is residence to roughly 5% of the world’s mineral assets, with wealthy deposits of titanium, uranium, iron, manganese and lithium — in addition to uncommon earth minerals which can be thought of important to US nationwide safety.
“I think it’s going to happen,” Trump stated of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia.
“I think we’ve made tremendous progress in the last week. We’re dealing with the Russians. We’re dealing with the Ukrainians. I think there’s going to be something,” the president insisted.
A US delegation led by Vice President JD Vance and Trump’s particular envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, is anticipated to fulfill with Zelensky on the Munich Safety Convention in Germany later this and talk about easy methods to finish the practically three-year-long conflict.
