Ukraine war

Trump wants natural resources – but Putin is close by

US President Donald Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin

(Bild: APA/AFP/Brendan Smialowski)

Russia and the USA are both interested in Ukraine's natural resources. However, the Kremlin is creating facts. Although they are not Moscow's main war target, they are a strategic one.

US President Donald Trump has declared that he wants Ukraine to hand over large quantities of important natural resources to the US in return for military aid. In reality, however, it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who is gaining more and more control. "Given the pace on the battlefield, it is likely that the Russians will advance into this area in the coming weeks," explained Konrad Muzyka, director of military consultant Rochan in Poland.

"The Ukrainian commanders I spoke to said that when they looked at which direction and on which axis the Russians were attacking, it was clear that their goal was also to capture the mineral resources," said Muzyka.

In the meantime, Russian soldiers have moved close to a large lithium deposit on Ukrainian territory. Only a few kilometers separate them from the Shevchenko area, and they are approaching it from three different directions, as the Ukrainian military blog Deep State reports, citing insiders.

A carnival float with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un parades through Nice.

(Bild: ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Russian corporation Rosatom interested
Lithium is a globally sought-after resource that is used in a variety of industries and technologies - from cell phones to electric cars. According to US estimates, Ukraine has reserves of around 500,000 tons. Shevchenko is located in Donetsk, one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow claims as its own territory. It is one of the largest lithium deposits in Ukraine and is located at a depth that allows for commercial mining.

Vladimir Ezhikov, a high-ranking Russian official in Donetsk, said in January that the Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom was interested in the deposit. However, the responsible Russian ministry would only issue a license for extraction when the time was right. It is currently too early for this due to the military conflict. However, there will definitely be investments and the mining of lithium.

Selenskyj showed "secret map"
 Selenskyj had shown a map once classified as "secret" in his office during an interview with the Reuters news agency in February. It showed numerous mineral deposits, including a wide strip of land marked as a rare earth deposit. About half of it appeared to be on the Russian side of the current front lines. According to Selenskyj, Russia knows exactly where Ukraine's important mineral resources are from geological surveys carried out during the Soviet era. There are only a few reliable estimates as to how much of it Russia already controls. However, it is undisputed that Ukraine is gradually losing control of its natural resources.

Economist and analyst Vasily Koltashov said that Trump's desire for a major minerals deal would become obsolete if Ukraine lost the war. "It's not him (Trump) and his appetite for rare earths that will decide who gets what," Koltashov recently explained on Russian state television. Rather, it will be Russia that wins the war. For many Russians, the conquest of Ukrainian mineral resources is also an important prize to be won in the war. This became clear in January when Denis Pushilin, an official supported by Russia in Donetsk, declared that the Shevchenko deposit had been conquered - and received enormous applause in the Russian press. However, the statement turned out to be false because Pushilin had confused the deposits with the conquest of another settlement of the same name elsewhere.

Russia draws parallels with Nazis
Moscow's reaction to the US proposal to include Ukraine in an agreement that would give the USA access to Ukrainian natural resources worth 500 billion dollars as compensation for US aid already provided has been correspondingly muted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov merely said that Trump's proposal shows that Ukraine should pay for any future US aid instead of continuing to receive it free of charge.

Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry in Moscow, was more blunt. She accused Zelensky of offering the USA resources that Ukraine no longer controls in view of the front lines. She also drew parallels with the plundering of Ukraine by the Nazis. "During the Second World War, the territory of the former Soviet Ukraine was seized and the Nazis set about plundering the national economy," Zakharova told reporters. They stole livestock and took mineral resources. "Now it's all happening without violence because the Kiev regime is giving it all away."

Ukraine and the USA have rejected the accusation that the USA is unfairly trying to exploit Ukraine's wealth of resources. Rather, an agreement is in the interests of both sides' trade and security. Russian war bloggers and nationalists, meanwhile, had written that Trump wanted to secure access. "There is only one thing to say about this," blogger Starshe Eddy, for example, wrote angrily on Telegram, where he has around 600,000 followers. "Ukraine's natural resources belong to the Russian people and no one else."