Trump says wants Ukraine to pay back $500 billion

In an interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier, Trump claimed that “the United States is in for more than $300 billion, probably 350” in various forms of aid to Ukraine, adding that it would be “stupid” for Washington to continue bankrolling Kiev without receiving anything in return.

“I want to have our money secured because we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars,” he stated, adding, “They have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things.”

“I told them that I want the equivalent, like $500 billion worth of rare earths, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that,” Trump continued.

“So at least we don’t feel stupid. Otherwise, we’re stupid. I said to them, we have to get something.”

“You know, they may make a deal, they may not make a deal, they may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday, but we’re gonna have all this money in there, and I say, I want it back,” he added.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed last week that he would be open to reaching an agreement over the country’s deposits of lithium, titanium, and other metals. However, he insisted that Ukraine’s Western backers must first help push Russian forces out of mineral-rich territories before they can invest in rare-earth resources.

Before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, the country had Europe’s largest reserves of titanium and lithium. While not classified as rare-earth elements, they are critical for military industries, batteries, and capacitors.

The list of rare-earth metals found in Ukraine also includes beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, graphite, apatite, fluorite, and nickel.

According to Forbes, around $7 trillion of Ukraine’s total mineral wealth is located in its former Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk, which declared independence from Ukraine in 2014 following the Western-backed Maidan coup in Kiev. Most of these territories came under Russian control after Donetsk and Lugansk voted to join Russia in 2022.