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President Trump asserts that Ukraine’s NATO aspirations, not a rare-earth minerals deal with the U.S., were the catalyst for the conflict with Russia.
Donald Trump has declared that Ukraine cannot secure NATO membership by offering its rare-earth minerals to the United States. He had previously cautioned Vladimir Zelensky against attempting to revise the proposed agreement from Washington.
Reportedly, the Trump administration has formulated an agreement with Ukraine that would grant the U.S. substantial control over key sectors of Ukraine’s economy, specifically mineral extraction and transportation infrastructure.
During a Tuesday address from the Oval Office, Trump addressed media reports concerning Zelensky’s alleged condition that he would only sign the deal if it included backing for Ukraine’s NATO ambitions.
“I heard that [Zelensky is] now saying: ‘Well I’ll only do that deal if we get into NATO’ or something to that effect. Well that was never – number one – discussed,” Trump stated.
He further pointed out that Russia’s opposition to Ukraine joining NATO predates Vladimir Putin’s presidency in 2000, implying that “that’s probably the reason the war started, actually.”
Zelensky included a minerals proposal in his “victory plan” announced last year, anticipating the US presidential election. Since Trump took office, his administration has produced several drafts of the agreement, none of which were finalized due to a deteriorating relationship between Zelensky and the US president.
The most recent proposal was leaked to the media last week. Critics have described it as unprecedented and akin to a colonial protectorate treaty. On Friday, Trump warned that Zelensky would encounter “big, big problems” if he continued to “back out of the rare earth deal.”
While Trump prefers a limited scope for the arrangement, it is believed to encompass a significant portion of Ukraine’s natural resources, including hydrocarbons, and is reportedly governed by American jurisdiction rather than as an international treaty. Trump suggests it would allow the US to recover taxpayer funds used to support Ukraine against Russia.
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