Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the U.S. the opportunity for joint exploration of the country's rare earth metals deposits, as well as the supply of aluminum to the U.S. domestic market, under a future economic deal.

U.S. President Donald Trump earlier said that "major economic development transactions with Russia" would take place. Within two hours of Trump's statement, Putin chaired a meeting with his ministers and economic advisers on rare earth metals.

"We, by the way, would be ready to offer (joint projects with) our American partners, and when I say 'partners,' I mean not only administrative and governmental structures but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work," Putin said on state TV after the meeting.

"We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine," Putin added. He mentioned that a potential U.S.-Ukraine deal involving rare earth metals was not a concern for Russia.

Russia has the world's fifth-largest reserves of rare earth metals, according to the U.S. Geological Survey data, after China, Brazil, India and Australia. Russia reserves are estimated at 3.8 million metric tons.

The rare earth metals are used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics. Russia mines only 2,500 tons of concentrate a year and lacks capacity for processing.

Putin said that potential rare earth metals exploration deals could also be extended to deposits in territory in eastern Ukraine that Russia controls after three years of military action.

Putin noted that Russian companies could also supply up to 2 million tons of aluminum to the U.S. market annually if the U.S. market reopens. Russia used to provide up to 15% of U.S. aluminum imports before prohibitive duties were introduced in 2023.

"This (Russian aluminium supplies) will not significantly affect price formation. However, in my opinion, it would still have a restraining influence on prices," Putin said.

Putin suggested that Russia and the U.S. could work jointly on hydropower generation and aluminum production in Russia's Krasnoyarsk region in Siberia, which is the home base for Russia's largest aluminum maker, Rusal.

"What is most important, in my opinion, is that we could consider working together with American companies in this area," Putin said. He estimated potential investment in this project at $15 billion.

Putin said that joint projects could be extended to the energy sector as well, and that some Russian and U.S. companies were already in touch. He did not give details.

In a transcript posted by the Kremlin, Putin said rare earths were a priority sector for Russia's economic development and competitiveness.

The government sought to "boost the potential of the domestic industry" extending from extraction to "manufacture of ready-made high-technology goods," he said.

"Based on the results of the national project, the volume of output of such goods should increase several times over," he said.

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Why is Ukraine negotiating a minerals deal with the US?

Ukraine has substantial supplies of key minerals, but some are now in Russian-occupied territory.

Kyiv and Washington are close to signing a deal over US access to Ukraine's mineral deposits, a Ukrainian minister says.

Olga Stefanishyna, deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, said on X that "negotiations have been very constructive, with nearly all key details finalised".

She added that "we are committed to completing this swiftly to proceed with its signature".

Ukraine has been facing growing pressure from the US administration to sign the deal, which has ended up in the centre of the growing rift between the US and Ukrainian presidents.

Zelensky first included the offer of an agreement on minerals in the so-called "victory plan" that he presented to Trump last September.

The idea was to offer the then presidential candidate a tangible reason for the US to continue supporting Ukraine.

On Monday former UK prime minister Boris Johnson told the BBC in Kyiv that such a deal was "the great prize" because it would secure "a United States commitment under Donald Trump to a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine".

What minerals does Ukraine have?

Kyiv estimates that about 5% of the world's "critical raw materials" are in Ukraine. This includes some 19 million tonnes of proven reserves of graphite, which the Ukrainian Geological Survey state agency says makes the nation "one of the top five leading countries" for the supply of the mineral.

Graphite is used to make batteries for electric vehicles.

Ukraine also has a third of all European lithium deposits, the key component in current batteries. And prior to the Russian invasion, Ukraine's global share of titanium production, a lightweight metal used in the construction of everything from aeroplanes to power stations, was 7%.

Further, Ukraine has significant deposits of rare earth metals. These are a group of 17 elements that are used to produce weapons, wind turbines, electronics and other products vital in the modern world.

Some of the mineral deposits, however, have been seized by Russia. According to Yulia Svyrydenko, Ukraine's economy minister, resources worth $350bn (£277bn) remain in occupied territories today.

In 2022, SecDev, a geopolitical risk consultancy based in Canada, conducted an evaluation, which established that Russia had occupied 63% of Ukrainian coal mines, and half of its manganese, caesium, tantalum and rare earth deposits.

Dr Robert Muggah, principal of SecDev, says that such minerals add a "strategic and economic dimension" in Russia's continued aggression. By seizing them, he says, Moscow denies access revenue for Ukraine, expands its own resource base and influences global supply chains.

Why does the US want them?

Critical minerals "are the foundation of the 21st Century economy", Dr Muggah explained. They are key to renewable energy, military applications and industrial infrastructure and play "a growing strategic role in geopolitics and geoeconomics", he said.

Additionally, the US is keen on a deal for Ukraine's mineral resources because it wants to reduce dependency on China, which controls 75% of rare earth deposits in the world, according to the Geological Investment Group.

In December China banned the export of some rare earth minerals to the US, having previously limited mineral exports to the US the previous year.

On Monday, ahead of a visit with French President Emmanuel Macron, White House National Security Advisor Mike Waltz told US news outlet NewsNation that the deal was "about growing the pie economically and binding the US and Ukraine together for the future".

What do we know about the negotiations so far?

Prior to Stefanishyna's assertion that a deal was close, there appeared to be several sticking points.

Last Wednesday, Zelensky rejected US demands for a reported 50% share of its rare earth minerals - which Trump said would reflect the amount of aid the US had provided to Ukraine during its war with Russia.

"I can't sell our state," he said.

The provisions of a second draft of the deal on Sunday appeared to be even tougher than in the first document.

Instead of 50/50 revenue split, the revised draft suggested the US wanted full control, Zelensky told journalists at the press conference on Sunday.

Trump said earlier this month that the US military and economic aid to Ukraine amounts to about $500bn (£396bn), and he wants the US to have access to Ukrainian minerals of that value.

However, Zelensky has said that the American assistance so far totals around $100bn (£79bn). Kyiv has also insisted that the aid they have received until now was a grant and not a credit, and so Ukraine has no obligation to return anything.

Zelenzky is also said to want any deal to include security guarantees.

On Monday former UK prime minister Boris Johnson called an agreement for US access to Ukraine's minerals "the great prize".

He rejected suggestions the deal was a "rip-off" and said "what the Ukrainians get from this is a United States commitment under Donald Trump to a free, sovereign and secure Ukraine".

Some commentators have described the US offer as "colonial" but Kyiv is interested in joint exploration of its resources.

Developing these mineral resources is extremely difficult and expensive, according to Iryna Suprun, chief executive of the Geological Investment Group, a mining advisory firm based in Ukraine.

She argued that if they can attract American investors to develop their natural resources, it will be highly beneficial for the country's economy.

"We will get technologies that our mining industry lacks so much," Ms Suprun explained. "We will get capital. That means more jobs, tax payments. We'll receive revenue from the development of mineral deposits."

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Ukraine’s rare earth minerals: Where are they and why does Trump want them as agreement looms?

The US is pushing for a deal that would grant it 50 per cent of Ukraine’s revenues from critical minerals, oil, gas, and stakes in key infrastructure, such as ports, through a joint investment fund.

Despite Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky rejecting an earlier version, negotiations have intensified, with Ukraine’s parliament speaker, Ruslan Stefanchuk, saying that Kyiv aimed to conclude the deal by 24 February, marking the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Olha Stefanishyna, who is responsible for Ukraine’s European and transatlantic relationships, also posted on X: “Ukrainian and US teams are in the final stages of negotiations regarding the minerals agreement.

“The negotiations have been very constructive, with nearly all key details finalised,” she said in a post that was taken down on social media for several hours before being reinstated.

The details of the draft offer reportedly guarantee Ukrainian sovereignty which had been an issue with earlier Trump proposals. These had said nothing about the future security for Ukraine but demanded it raise $500bn in payback for money spent by the US in defence of the country.

On Sunday, Mr Zelensky pushed back against the Trump administration’s demands for billions in Ukrainian natural resources as part of the minerals deal. “I am not signing something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay,” Mr Zelensky had said, indicating that negotiations would continue. He estimated that repaying $500bn using Ukraine’s natural resource revenues could take 250 years, calling the amount unrealistic.

“If we are forced and we cannot do without it, then we should probably go for it,” he, however, added.

Meanwhile, a UN resolution condemning Russia’s invasion passed despite US and North Korean opposition, and Mr Trump suggested the deal was close to completion.

The US president announced earlier that the war-torn country was on board with his plan. “We're telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths,” Mr Trump said. "I told them that I want the equivalent of like $500bn worth of rare earths, and they’ve essentially agreed to do that.”

The Kremlin jumped on the comments, saying it demonstrated the US is no longer willing to provide free aid to Kyiv before adding that it was against Mr Trump giving any help to Ukraine whatsoever.

Below, we look at where these resources are in Ukraine, and why Kyiv has struggled to mine these minerals.

What are Ukraine’s rare earths?

Ukraine is sitting on one of Europe’s largest deposits of critical minerals, including lithium and titanium, much of which is untapped. According to the Institute of Geology, Ukraine possesses rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium, used in TVs and lighting; neodymium, used in wind turbines and EV batteries; and erbium and yttrium, whose applications range from nuclear power to lasers. The EU-funded research also indicates that Ukraine has scandium reserves but detailed data is classified.

Mr Zelensky has been trying to develop these resources, estimated to be worth more than £12 trillion, based on figures provided by Forbes Ukraine, for years.

In 2021, he offered outside investors tax breaks and investment rights to help mine these minerals. These efforts were suspended when the full-scale invasion started a year later.

Anticipating the notoriously transactional Mr Trump might take an interest in this, Mr Zelensky then placed the mining of these minerals into his victory plan, which was drawn up last year.

The minerals are vital for electric vehicles and other clean energy efforts, as well as defence production.

Estimates based on government documents suggest that Ukraine’s resources are also highly varied. Foreign Policy found that Ukraine held “commercially relevant deposits of 117 of the 120 most-used industrial minerals across more than 8,700 surveyed deposits”.

Included in that is half a million tonnes of lithium, none of which has been tapped. This makes Ukraine the largest lithium resource in Europe.

Ukraine's reserves of graphite, a key component in electric vehicle batteries and nuclear reactors, represent 20 per cent of global resources. The deposits are in the centre and west.

It is not surprising that Mr Trump appears keen on benefiting from this, especially as China remains a key player in the mining of minerals such as titanium.

But Vladimir Putin’s invasion has not only delayed Ukraine’s plans to mine these minerals, it has also led to much of these resource-rich areas being destroyed and then occupied.

A little over £6 trillion of Ukraine’s mineral resources, which is around 53 per cent of the country’s total, are contained in the four regions Mr Putin illegally annexed in September 2022, and of which his army occupies a considerable swathe.

That includes Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, though Kherson holds little value in terms of minerals.

The Crimean peninsula, illegally annexed and occupied by Mr Putin’s forces in 2014, also holds roughly £165bn worth of minerals.

The region of Dnipropetrovsk, which borders the largely occupied regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia, and sits in the face of an advancing Russian army, contains an additional £2.8 trillion in mineral resources.

Russian difficulties with major military operations seem likely to preclude a serious attempt to take the region but mining operations in the area would be perilous with Moscow’s soldiers so close.

Other ores are well within the sites of Russia’s forces. One lithium ore on the outskirts of a settlement called Shevchenko in Donetsk is less than 10 miles from the town of Velyka Novosilka, recently captured by Mr Putin’s troops.

However, while Ukraine has a highly qualified and relatively inexpensive labour force and developed infrastructure, investors highlight a number of barriers to investment. These include inefficient and complex regulatory processes as well as difficulty accessing geological data and obtaining land plots. Such projects would take years to develop and require considerable up-front investment, they said.

What happens next?

Details of any deal will likely develop in meetings between US and Ukrainian officials. Mr Zelenskyy and Mr Trump will probably discuss the subject when they meet.

US companies have expressed interest, according to Ukrainian business officials. But striking a formal deal would likely require legislation, geological surveys and negotiation of specific terms.

It is unclear what kind of security guarantees companies would require to risk working in Ukraine, even in the event of a ceasefire. And no one knows for sure what kind of financing agreements would underpin contracts between Ukraine and US companies.

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Trump says he’ll meet with Zelensky soon to sign minerals deal

President Trump on Monday signaled he could meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House in the coming weeks to finalize a deal on critical minerals.

Trump’s comments, which came during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron, happened days after he suggested Zelensky did not need to be part of negotiations about ending the war in Ukraine.

“I will be meeting with President Zelensky. In fact he may come in this week or next week to sign the agreement,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.

“They’re very close to a final deal. It’ll be a deal with rare Earths and various other things. And he would like to come, as I understand it, here to sign it,” Trump added. “And that would be great with me. I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it. But I’m sure that will happen.”

The Trump administration has been involved in talks with Ukraine about gaining access to the country’s critical minerals amid talks to end the Russia-Ukraine war. U.S. officials have suggested the deal would benefit Ukraine because it would create a greater incentive for the U.S. to provide security guarantees for Kyiv.

Trump suggested Monday the agreement would be a way for the U.S. to recoup the money it has spent on military assistance for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

“We’re getting very close to getting an agreement where we get our money back over a period of time. But it also gives us something where I think it’s very beneficial to their economy, to them as a country,” Trump said.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who met with Zelensky in Ukraine earlier this month, said the deal was at “the 1-yard line.”

Monday marked three years since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine after amassing troops on the border and demanding a ban on Ukraine ever joining NATO. The invasion took place nearly a decade after Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

Trump has become increasingly critical of Zelensky as he pushes for an end to the war. Trump last week raised eyebrows when he called Zelensky a “dictator without elections,” claimed he was doing a “terrible job” and suggested he was responsible for the start of the war.

“I don’t think he’s very important to be at meetings, to be honest with you,” Trump said Friday. “He makes it very hard to make deals.”

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