The United States (U.S.) president said on Monday that Ukraine should secure rare minerals for the U.S. in exchange for Washington’s assistance in the war against Russia.
Donald Trump told reporters in the Oval Office of the White House that Washington and Kyiv are in negotiations.
“We are currently working on some agreements, we have certain guarantees and some other things in place to continue with the whole situation,” Trump said.
The U.S. president complained that the U.S. is providing Ukraine with more economic and military aid than Europe and said that Kyiv is open to his proposal.
“We are telling Ukraine that they have very valuable land. We want guarantees. We are giving them money at a loss. We want to secure rare minerals. We are giving hundreds of billions of dollars. They have rare minerals, and I want to secure them. And they are ready to do it,” Trump said.
Trump has repeatedly proposed ending Russia’s war against Ukraine and has blamed both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Ukraine sits on vast reserves of rare minerals. According to a report by the World Economic Forum, Ukraine holds five percent of the world’s mineral resource reserves.
