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Putin's offer to Trump on rare minerals/ DW: What does the Kremlin want to achieve with this and how are Ukrainians reacting?

Politiko 2025-03-02 12:11:00

Putin's offer to Trump on rare minerals/ DW: What does the Kremlin want to

Russian president Vladimir Putin has proposed to U.S. President Donald Trump to jointly use mineral and rare earth reserves in both Russia and the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.

"We are ready to work there with our partners, including American partners," Putin said in an interview on Russian state television on February 24. He added that Russia has "some of the largest reserves in the world" in the north of the country, as well as in the Caucasus, Siberia, the Far East and in "new territories," as Putin calls the occupied territory of Ukraine.

Such statements from Moscow are heard with concern in Ukraine. "The occupied territories contain significant raw materials worth about $350 billion. It is clear to us that they can be used by Russia in the aviation, defense and medical industries and will ultimately be used for the fight against us," Ukrainian Economy Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said at a recent news conference in Kyiv. Ukraine has reserves of titanium, lithium, uranium and rare minerals.

Dmytro Levus, director of the Ukrainian Center for Social Research, is convinced that Putin's proposal shows that international sanctions against Russia are working, even if the Kremlin does not directly acknowledge this. "Russia is now looking for economic support, economic contacts and cooperation with the US. Rare minerals and extraction of other raw materials and the production of products like aluminum are almost the only areas in which Russia can actually cooperate in some form," Lewus explains in an interview with DW.

But at the same time, the expert warns that Putin is setting up traps where U.S. President Donald Trump could fall. Putin's proposal for Russian-U.S. cooperation in the extraction of raw materials in the occupied Ukrainian territories should be viewed from this point of view. "Under Putin's plan, this is only meant to promote legalization and recognition of the Russian occupation," he said. If U.S. companies really do come to the occupied territories, Lewus said, then they would not only want to defend this illegal step, but their Russian partners who would support them.

Oleksandr Mereshko, a member of the parliamentary group of the ruling Party's Servant of the People, hopes the United States will never approve of the purchase of raw materials from Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. "This would be a blatant violation of international law," Mershko said. He sees no danger to Ukraine. "The United States clearly recognizes ukraine's territorial integrity. If they buy stolen raw materials from the occupied territories it would be a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and the principles of international law. The UNITED States will not do this under any circumstnamics," Mereschko told DW.

However, recent statements by the White House that Ukraine will probably have to give up territories after peace negotiations, show that the US under Trump no longer fully recognizes Ukraine's territorial integrity.

Putin was "just jealous"

Putin's offer to the U.S., which has sparked outrage in Ukraine, has also sparked discussion on social media. Oleksiy Kopytko, a former adviser to The Ukrainian Defense Minister, ironically writes on Facebook that Putin has finally accepted the goals of "Special Military Operation" as the war against Ukraine in Russia is called. He is interested in selling two million tons of aluminum in the UNITED STATES. Kopytko describes this as "aggressive marketing by the Kremlin in the form of a comprehensive war"

"For years Moscow was saying that treacherous America only wanted to snatch the raw materials," Kopytko said. With his war, Putin sent hundreds of thousands of Russians to his death and made about half a million invalids. For what? "To simply give the US what it hasn't yet given to China so that it can live happily to the end of his days?"

Serhij Taran, an X-network user, wrote: "Putin is willing to sell metals and minerals for US dollars in the US. Apparently, when Putin warned countries in the global south years of U.S. "imperialists" who just want to buy their resources cheaply, they were simply envious of them." /WS