Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has frequently brought up Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as a reason to continue fueling the proxy war.
“This war is about money. People don’t talk much about it. But you know, the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals is Ukraine. Two to seven trillion dollars’ worth of minerals that are rare earth minerals, very relevant to the 21st century,” Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity in November. “Ukraine’s ready to do a deal with us, not the Russians. So it’s in our interest to make sure that Russia doesn’t take over the place.”
Commentators here seem to be missing the main point - Trump is simply responding positively to Zelensky’s offer.
Proof: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/02/04/ukraine-trump-rare-earth-minerals/ => https://archive.ph/LXP0J
World history knows many battles fought for independence, but the last 10 years of Ukraine’s history represent a unique example of a ruthless struggle to become a colony.
I actually think this is more an attempt to exploit Trump’s worldview; he’s well-known to view inter-state relationships as purely transactional, and from that lens it seems like a good deal.
Thing is, depending on how the war goes either Russia or the US will take everything they possibly can from Ukraine; it may well be that offering Trump something the US was probably going to try to take anyway is just about the smartest way to turn somebody who was initially hostile to continued aid into someone personally invested in the outcome.
I’m not sure I understand why you think that’s the ‘main’ point, it sounds like you mean this was all at Ukraine’s initiative. But I think the real story is that it has traction because, well, you need two sides to make a deal, and the game changer is Trump’s affirmative interest, which escalates this from offer to mutual interest.
Zelensky was an American plant from 2014. This would be America responding to America’s offer.
That’s a new one
No at all a new one. It’s been going around since the 2014 color revolution and coup.
More like a ruthless struggle to break up with one colonizer in favor of a new one.
There’s a reason more than half the oligarchs fled to Russia at the onset of the war.