MOSCOW, February 4. /TASS/. Large amounts of rare earth minerals that Ukraine had offered to the United States are on territories no longer controlled by the Kiev government, Vladimir Zelensky admitted.
US President Donald Trump said on February 3 that his country was interested in receiving rare earth minerals from Ukraine and was seeking to obtain relevant guarantees from the Kiev government. The Ukrainian media reported shortly after that a significant portion of Ukrainian rare-earth mineral deposits are located on territories outside the Kiev government’s control. The Ukrainian edition of Forbes assessed the aggregate value of Ukraine’s mineral resources at $15 trillion as of April 2023. At the same time, the people’s republics of Donetsk and Lugansk (DPR and LPR), as well as the Dnepropetrovsk Region not far from the frontline, account for over 70% of deposits.
"To a certain extent, [the territories outside the Kiev government’s control] indeed hold large amounts of our mineral resources," Zelensky has told reporters after talks with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Grossi in Kiev. The fragment of the video was published by RBC-Ukraine.
"We are open to the idea of extracting it all with our partners, who are helping us to defend our land," he said. "I’ve mentioned this during a meeting with President Trump in New York back in September.".