Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he would consider offering the United States access to rare earth minerals in Russian-occupied Ukraine.
His announcement came as President Donald Trump and his administration are pressuring Ukrainian officials to turn over some of their country’s rare mineral reserves in exchange for continued support.
Negotiations for a deal were in the final stages, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Stefanishyna said in a social media post Monday.
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In an interview broadcast on Russian state TV, Putin claimed a rare minerals deal between the US and Ukraine was of no concern to his country because Russia, he said, has “significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine.”
Russia has the world’s fifth-largest rare earth metals reserves after China, Brazil, India and Australia, according to the United States Geological Survey.
Putin added that his country was “ready to work with our partners, including the Americans,” on partnerships that could include rare earth mining and aluminum production.
He then offered up rare earth metals from the areas Russia has occupied since it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, an act that experts and intergovernmental organizations have said violated international law.
“As for the new territories—the same applies: we are ready to attract foreign partners, and our so-called new historical territories, which have returned to the Russian Federation, also have certain reserves there,” Putin said.
The “new territories” he was referring to are areas in and around four Ukrainian oblasts that Russia unilaterally declared it had annexed in 2022 after staging a series of sham referendums—none of which are recognized by the international community.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov affirmed Tuesday that the Kremlin believes Putin’s deal would open “quite broad prospects” for cooperation with the US.
Since taking office, the Trump administration has reoriented American foreign policy towards Russia, reopening diplomatic channels to Putin.
Last week, Trump spread several falsehoods about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that echoed Russian propaganda, calling him a “dictator” and falsely claiming his approval rating was a dismal four percent (it’s well over 50 percent, according to recent polls).
On Monday, the Trump administration rammed through a resolution at the United Nations security council on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that was suspiciously absent of any criticism of the belligerent nation.
This came after US officials opposed a European-backed resolution that affirmed Ukraine’s territorial integrity and noted Russia’s role as the aggressor in the conflict.
The Kremlin’s Peskov praised Trump’s “balanced position” on Tuesday, which he said “is really helping efforts aimed at resolving the conflict over Ukraine.”
After meeting with his American counterpart in Washington, D.C. on Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron told Fox News he believes the Trump administration’s negotiations with Russia and Ukraine could lead to a truce " in the weeks to come," but he cautioned against making concessions to Putin.
“My message was to say be careful because we need something substantial for Ukraine,” he added.
