Three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the world now is aware of the precise worth for American navy help of Ukraine. Throughout a recent interview with Fox News, United States President Donald Trump put a $500 billion price ticket on American help to the war-torn nation.
However there was a catch: the change must be made within the type of Ukraine’s useful pure assets, together with uncommon earth minerals. “We now have to get one thing. We will’t proceed to pay this cash,” Trump mentioned within the interview.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has since told his aides to reject the proposal.
Given the dizzying tempo of occasions which have unfolded for the reason that Trump interview, it’s unclear now whether or not any cope with Ukraine on its uncommon earth minerals will ever come to move. That is very true given Trump’s subsequent surprise phone conversation with Russian leader Vladimir Putin and ongoing peace talks between the U.S. and Russia that have excluded Ukrainian and European Union officials.
However there’s little doubt Ukraine’s pure assets can be an necessary ingredient in future diplomatic negotiations.
At all times a strategic issue
Ukraine’s wealthy pure assets have all the time been a strategic issue within the struggle. To some extent, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was driven by the interest to capture and control these resources — together with essential minerals, fertile farmland and power reserves.
Ukraine’s earlier makes an attempt to develop its mineral deposits and power reserves — equivalent to oil and gas privatization in 2013 and later attracting investments for the development of its mineral resource extraction in 2021 — had been lower quick first by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 after which by the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022.
In 2021, the European Union signed a strategic partnership with Ukraine to incorporate “activities along the entire value chain of both primary and secondary critical raw materials and batteries.”
The timing of the navy marketing campaign in opposition to Ukraine might not have been decided solely by the nation’s makes an attempt to develop its pure assets, however they’ve actually been an element. Most of those deposits, including oil and gas fields, are situated within the japanese and southern areas of Ukraine, that are at the moment both beneath Russian occupation or close to the entrance line.
Ukraine’s mineral wealth
Ukraine’s mineral wealth quantities to about 20,000 mineral deposits and 116 types of minerals. Most of those deposits are unexplored, with solely 15 per cent of all of the deposits lively previous to the Russian invasion.
Rare earth minerals are amongst this mineral wealth as demand for them has skyrocketed in the past several years.
In keeping with recent estimates, Ukraine has the most important titanium reserves in Europe and 7 per cent of the world’s reserves, in addition to the most important lithium reserves in Europe. It additionally has vital manufacturing capability in relation to uncommon earth minerals.
(AP Photograph/Efrem Lukatsky)
Ukraine additionally has confirmed deposits of beryllium, uranium and manganese. Earlier than the struggle, Ukraine was the world’s fifth-largest producer of gallium and is a major producer of neon gas.
As well as, Ukraine additionally has giant reserves of nonferrous metals, including copper, zinc, silver, lead, nickel, cobalt, as well as one of the largest global reserves of graphite.
Estimates differ, however Ukrainian critical mineral deposits could be worth trillions of dollars.
These assets are necessary from a geopolitical perspective: China has grow to be the key provider of uncommon earth minerals on the worldwide market. Not solely has China led in the extraction of these minerals, but it also has the largest production and refinement capacity.
As reliance on Chinese language provide has elevated, China used it as leverage during the U.S.-China trade dispute in 2019 and stopped rare earth exports to Japan in 2010.
China’s dominance on this sector means diversifying the availability of uncommon earth minerals has geopolitical significance, particularly for the U.S. and the EU. They wish to ensure the supply comes from a strategic partner — Ukraine.
Ukraine’s pure wealth
Ukraine’s pure riches transcend essential minerals and embrace giant deposits of hydrocarbons, notably pure fuel. Ukraine ranks second for natural gas reserves in Europe and fourth in terms of natural gas production.
Ukraine’s fertile soil — or chernozem, humus-rich grassland soils used extensively for rising cereals and elevating livestock — can also be economically and strategically necessary, making the nation one of many largest exporters of meals globally.
In 2021, Ukrainian wheat exports accounted for 12 per cent of the global wheat supply, 16 per cent of the global corn supply, 18 per cent of the global barley supply and almost half of the global supply of sunflower seeds, mainly to developing countries.
(AP Photograph/Efrem Lukatsky)
Final however not least, Ukraine’s biodiversity, landscapes and ecosystems — some of which have been severely damaged due to the war — are invaluable to the nation’s pure atmosphere and important for the well being and well-being of Ukrainians.
The nation’s nuclear facilities and radioactive sites are also at risk of being compromised, which might lead to extreme environmental and well being ramifications within the area. In truth, a recent Russian drone attack reportedly damaged part of the Chernobyl nuclear facility.
What’s subsequent for Ukraine’s pure assets
The destiny of Ukraine’s mineral riches will largely rely on how the battle and post-conflict processes unfold.
However their existence has already confirmed to be of strategic significance within the struggle — first, to Russia, and now to the U.S. as nicely.
Ukraine’s pure wealth and the way it options in present conversations about the way forward for the battle reminds us concerning the central function useful resource politics can play in shaping struggle and peace.
