German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sharply criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to tie future military aid for Ukraine to access to its rare earth resources, calling the move “very egotistic, very self-centered.”
Scholz said that Ukraine needs its natural resources to finance post-war rebuilding, not to bargain for security assistance. “That’s why I think it would be better if Ukraine’s resources were used for a good future,” he said.
However, Ukraine appears more open to the idea — at least the opening up of its critical raw materials to allies, if not explicitly the quid pro quo suggested by Trump — than Scholz’s remarks suggest.
Sharing Ukrainian resources with allies is part of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s broader “victory plan” for the war with Russia, which has been presented to foreign leaders, including Trump.
Trump, who has repeatedly hinted at scaling back U.S. support for Ukraine, suggested that American assistance should be contingent on securing rights to Ukraine’s valuable deposits. “We’re investing hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earths, and I want security of the rare earths,” he said in Washington.
“They’re willing to do it,” Trump added.
Ukraine, which is heavily reliant on Western weapons to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ongoing full-scale invasion, faces a critical situation as resource-rich areas, like the Krutaja Balka site near Berdyansk on the country’s southeastern coast, remain under Russian occupation.
Despite these losses, Ukraine retains strategic reserves of lithium, graphite, titanium and uranium — crucial for its future economic stability and potentially part of the calculus in balancing immediate aid with long-term resource sovereignty.
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