Ukraine has 'essentially' agreed to grant U.S. access to $500B worth of natural resources in exchange for aid – Trump

He stated this in an interview with Fox News, according to Ukrinform.

"They [Ukrainians] have tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things. I want to have our money secured because we are spending hundreds of billions of dollars. And, you know, they may make a deal. They may not make a deal. They may be Russians some day or may not be Russians some day. We are going to have all this money. I say I want it back. And I told them [Ukrainians] that I want the equivalent like $500 billion worth of rare earth, and they have essentially agreed to do that. I said to them that we have to get something. We can't continue to pay this money," Trump said.

According to him, the U.S. has already provided Ukraine with $300-350 billion in aid, while Europe has contributed only around $100 billion.

When asked how he would bring Russia and Ukraine to the negotiating table, Trump claimed that "we have made tremendous progress in the last week."

"We are dealing with the Russians. We are dealing with the Ukrainians. I think there is going to be something done," he said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated earlier that Ukraine is ready to make a deal with the U.S. on access to rare earth minerals and seeks security guarantees from its allies as part of any potential settlement.

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