Weapons for Rare Earths: Trump Seeks Guarantees in Deal with Ukraine
US President Donald Trump said he is interested in concluding an arms deal with Ukraine in exchange for rare earth metals and other resources.
He told reporters at the White House on Monday, Bloomberg reports.
The US president said that Ukraine has ‘very valuable rare earth metals’ and the United States wants its investments to be ‘guaranteed’ to some extent.
‘We want to make a deal with Ukraine in which they guarantee what we give them with their rare earth metals and other things,’ Trump said without elaborating.
The US president also noted that Europe does not provide Ukraine with the same amount of military assistance.
‘We're separated by an ocean... It's more important to them than it is to us. But they are far behind us in funding, and they should pay at least as much,’ Trump said.
Trump has previously said that he wants to bring an end to the nearly three-year war between Russia and Ukraine through negotiations, and has frequently criticised former President Joe Biden's financial and military support for Kyiv.
He has also called on Russian dictator Putin to reach a peace deal with Ukraine, threatening further US sanctions and stressing that the war has already devastated the Russian economy and will ‘only get worse’.
