Zelensky Rejects Trump’s Draft Deal To Take Half Ukraine’s Mineral Reserves

Financial Times is reporting Saturday that Ukraine has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to take a 50% ownership stake in Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for continued US defense and budgetary aid.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with President Zelensky Wednesday to review a draft deal, but no details were given. Bessent reportedly handed Zelensky the written proposal to consider, but no other details were given.

It appears still early in the negotiations, however. “We are still talking,” Zelensky said from Munich Saturday. “I have had different dialogues.”

The thrust of Trump’s complaint about Ukraine and plans to rectify the situation was seen in his earlier comments, saying, “We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earth (minerals). We want what we put up to go in terms of a guarantee. We want a guarantee. We’re handing them money hand over fist.”

“I want to have security of rare earth. We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth, and I want security of the rare earth (minerals). And they’re willing to do it,” he had explained.

Trump and top officials later articulated that the US wants a guarantee of $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s estimated trillion dollars of rare earth wealth.

FT writes Ukraine’s rejection of Bessent’s proposal as follows: 

Zelenskyy wants American and European security guarantees to be tied directly to any deal on the mineral reserves, according to four people familiar with the US-Ukraine negotiations. He is also keen for other countries, including EU states, to be involved in future natural resource exploitation.

But the deal proposed by Trump and delivered by Bessent only referenced the US getting Ukrainian resources in exchange for past military assistance, and did not contain any proposals for similar future assistance, according to a person familiar with the document.

If accurate, then this is indeed all about Trump recouping US losses, after months ago mocking Zelensky as the “world’s greatest salesman” for his ability to procure billions in US taxpayer dollars. Meanwhile…

ZELENSKIY: UKRAINE’S MARTIAL LAW PREVENTS HOLDING ELECTIONS

The now rejected proposal reportedly laid out that Ukraine would transfer transfer partial control of its valuable mineral resources to Washington in place of making financial repayments.

Zelensky now sees himself as having a little leverage with the Trump administration, amid fears of a ‘bad’ peace deal with Russia…

Zelensky personally BLOCKED deal with the US over Ukraine’s minerals

‘It’s not ready to protect us’

Trump demands 50% of Ukraine’s rare earths https://t.co/qODemyy45Z pic.twitter.com/FsI7EzUS7b

— RT (@RT_com) February 15, 2025

The war-ravaged country is known for having one of the largest confirmed reserves of lithium, and also has semiconductor-grade neon gas that is critical for chip production – as well as beryllium, uranium, manganese, zirconium, apatite, iron ore.