As U.S.-Ukraine negotiations continue with both sides jockeying back and forth on a possible rare earth minerals deal, President Donald Trump said Sunday that Ukraine was trying to back out of the deal.
Aboard Air Force One, Trump told reporters, “I think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy, by the way, he’s trying to back out of the rare earth deal, and if he does that, he’s got some problems, big, big problems.”
The deal was reportedly designed to benefit both countries, with a chance of the U.S. recouping some or all of the billions of dollars in military aid it has provided to Ukraine since Russia invaded the Eastern European nation in 2022.
“The American people have to have something in return,” Ben Habib, chair of the Great British Political Action Committee and former co-deputy leader of Reform UK, told FOX Business. “The U.S. is reasserting itself.”
Matt Miller, an equities analyst at CFRA Research, told FOX Business that rare earth elements are essential for advanced military equipment, including jet engines, guided missiles, electronic warfare equipment and radar systems. Until now, the U.S. has sourced the vast majority of its rare earths from China, which is an adversarial regime.
A no-deal with Ukraine isn’t catastrophic for the U.S. Other countries have rich resources. Notably, Greenland has massive reserves of rare earths and other minerals. Some of those rare earths could be used in the production of defense equipment.