The Trump administration indicated U.S. troops could be deployed to provide security in connection with the minerals if there’s a peace deal with Russia, sources told NBC News.
The Trump administration has suggested to Ukraine that the United States be granted 50% ownership of the country’s rare earth minerals, and signaled an openness to deploying American troops there to guard them if there’s a deal with Russia to end the war, according to four U.S. officials.
Rather than pay for the minerals, the ownership agreement would be a way for Ukraine to reimburse the U.S. for the billions of dollars in weapons and support its provided to Kyiv since the war began in February 2022, two of the officials said.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent presented the proposal for the U.S. to own half of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a draft contract he brought to their meeting on Wednesday in Kyiv, according to eight U.S. officials briefed on the meeting.
After that meeting, Bessent said the draft of a U.S.-Ukraine rare earth minerals agreement reflected the president’s goal, but he did not provide details of what the administration had proposed.
Zelenskyy declined to sign the document when Bessent presented it during their meeting, saying he needed to study it and consult others about it, the eight U.S. officials briefed on the meeting said.
The Ukrainian leader said at the time that he and his team “will do everything to review all details of the document” before his arrival in Munich, where he met Friday with Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well as U.S. lawmakers on the sidelines of a global security conference.
The Ukrainian Embassy in Washington and a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment Friday.
Zelenskyy said during his speech Friday at the security conference that his lawyers would weigh in on the document Bessent presented to him in Kyiv with advice and some changes. He referred to the proposal as memorandum between the U.S. and Ukraine, not a security agreement.
President Donald Trump in recent months has expressed interest in striking a deal with Ukraine that would grant the U.S. significant access to its rare earth minerals, which are used to make a variety of technology products.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Trump said he wants the U.S. to get $500 billion worth of Ukraine’s rare earth minerals, and signaled Kyiv had “essentially agreed to do so.”
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Trump told reporters in the Oval Office this month that he would view access to the minerals as a form of “security.”
“I want to have the security of rare earth. We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth, and I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it,” Trump said.
Many of Ukraine’s minerals are in areas now controlled by Russian troops, three U.S. officials said.
Ukrainian officials have said Zelenskyy has long backed the idea of exchanging “critical resources” for continued U.S. support, calling the idea part of the “Victory Plan” that he presented to Trump during a meeting last fall.
In an exclusive interview Friday at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy told NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker that it would be “very, very difficult” for Ukraine to survive without U.S. military support.
“In all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States. I think it’s very important, critical,” Zelenskyy said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said this week that U.S. troops would not be deployed to Ukraine as part of any security guarantees for the country. The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that Vance said in an interview with the newspaper that the U.S. sending troops to Ukraine is “on the table” if Russia does not negotiate a peace agreement in good faith.
Trump has long bristled at the amount of American support for Ukraine, referring to Zelenskyy at a past campaign event as “the greatest salesman of all time.”
“Every time Zelenskyy comes to the United States, he walks away with $100 billion,” Trump said in September. “I think he’s the greatest salesman on Earth. But we’re stuck in that war unless I’m president.”
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