STORY: :: Trump says the U.S. is ‘pretty close to a deal’ with

Ukraine for U.S. access to its rare earth minerals

:: February 22, 2025

:: Donald Trump, U.S. President

"I'm dealing with President Zelenskiy. I am dealing with President Putin. We are trying to get the money back that, or secured, because, you know, Europe has given $100 billion. The United States has given $350 billion because we had a stupid, incompetent president and administration, 350. But here is worse. Europe gave it in the form of a loan. They get their money back. We gave it in the form of nothing. So, I want them to give us something for all of the money we put up. And, I am going to try to get the war settled. And I’m going to try and get all that death ended. So we are asking for rare earth and oil, anything we can get. // We are going to get our money back because it is not fair. It's just not fair. And we will see. But I think we are pretty close to a deal. We better be close to a deal.”

He said the United States wanted to recoup the billions of dollars in military aid Washington has given to Ukraine in its fight to repel Russian invaders. He said the United States is asking for rare earths, oil or "anything we can get."

Ukraine has valuable deposits of strategic minerals that the U.S. wants. These include uranium, lithium, cobalt, rare earths and more and are used in applications such as batteries, technology and aerospace.

"We're signing an agreement, hopefully in the next fairly short period of time," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Friday when asked about a possible deal for Ukraine's minerals.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said separately that Ukrainian and U.S. teams were working on a draft agreement. "I am hoping for ... a fair result," he said in a video address after sharp exchanges this week between the two leaders.

Zelenskiy on Wednesday rejected U.S. demands for $500 billion in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the United States had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.