US President Donald Trump said Monday he wanted to secure half a trillion dollars in rare earth metals from Ukraine. He suggested that in his defense against Russian military infringement, he “may be Russian one day” as part of negotiations to continue US support for Kiev.
“We’re spending hundreds of millions of dollars, so we want to secure the money,” Trump said in an interview with the Fox News host. Brett Bayer. “They may trade, they may not trade. They may one day be Russian, and they may not be Russian.”
Washington has so far provided US$65.9 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, according to the US State Department. Following Russia’s first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, another $69.2 billion in military aid was provided.
Last Monday, Trump said in exchange for US military support, Kyiv wanted to negotiate an agreement with Ukraine to ensure the supply of rare earth metals, an important element used in electronic devices. Ukrainian President Voldymir Zelensky came up with the idea in October as part of his “winning plan” to end the war with Russia.
“We’ll have all this money out there, and I say: ‘I want to get it back’. And I told them I wanted something like $500 billion worth of rare earth equivalent,” Trump said in an interview with Fox News. “And they essentially agreed to do that, so at least we don’t think we’re stupid.”
When asked to comment on Trump’s interview on Tuesday, the Kremlin said the situation in Ukraine “mainly corresponds to President Trump’s words.”
“The fact that a key part of Ukraine wants to become Russia is the fact that we already have,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, noting Moscow’s annexation of the Ukrainian region in 2022. .
Also on Monday, Trump said he would send Ukrainian envoy Keith Kellogg to Kaif immediately to draft a proposal to end the war. The US president has repeatedly said he hopes to end the fight, but Zelensky has sought strong security guarantees from Washington in every agreement with Moscow.
Meanwhile, a Zelensky spokesman told AFP that the Ukrainian leader will meet with US Vice President JD Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.
In his video address on Monday, Zelensky called for “true peace and effective security assurances” in Ukraine.
“The safety of the people, the security of our nation, the security of our economic relations, and of course, the sustainability of our resources – not just for Ukraine, but for the entire free world,” the Ukrainian leader said. “All of this has been decided.”
Reports that contributed to AFP.
