Greece (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Ukraine has agreed in principle to a significant agreement granting the United States access to its mineral resources. Kyiv has been under increasing pressure from Washington to finalize the deal, which was a key point of contention between the US and Ukrainian presidents last week.
On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump stated that he expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to visit Washington in the coming days to sign the agreement. Although he did not confirm that a deal had been finalized, Trump remarked that it would grant Ukraine “the right to fight on.” Zelensky initially proposed the mineral agreement as part of his “victory plan,” which he presented to Trump last September.
The negotiations were not easy and many times we saw statements from both sides regarding the matter. The Ukrainian side initially refused the American proposal, as it was considered a momentary exploitation of the country’s wealth and a mortgage for its future. But as the Kremlin and Washington came closer, Kiev was forced to agree. Without any mention of NATO, the future in the EU and the collective security of the country. Finally, we do not officially know what will happen to the areas controlled by Russian troops.
The Mineral Wars
However, some of Ukraine’s mineral reserves have been seized by Russia. Russian forces have taken control of 63% of Ukraine’s coal mines, along with half of its manganese, caesium, tantalum, and rare earth deposits. The proposal aimed to provide the then-presidential candidate with a concrete incentive for the US to maintain its support for Ukraine.
Russia’s deliberate targeting of resource-rich regions, including Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia, along with Crimea and the Black Sea, highlights the war’s economic and strategic stakes. These coastal and border areas, rich in hydrocarbons and critical minerals like graphite, lithium, and uranium, are not only crucial for Ukraine’s sovereignty but also play a key role in Europe’s energy security and the global competition between the United States and China for technological supremacy.
The control of these resources is a significant—though often overlooked—factor in shaping the course of the conflict and will likely have a major impact on how it is ultimately resolved. Despite being underreported, Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth remains a critical element in the broader geopolitical struggle. Russia’s focus on specific geographic regions in its occupation efforts is far from random. The Dnieper-Donetsk region alone accounts for 80% of Ukraine’s known reserves and production of conventional oil, gas, and coal.
Most of Ukraine’s identified critical minerals, including 22 rare-metal formations, are primarily located in Donetsk, Dobra, and Kruta Balka. Before the war, Ukraine was a major global supplier of noble gases such as neon, essential for microchip manufacturing, and held the largest known lithium and rare earth deposits in Europe.
The majority of these valuable resources are found within the “Ukrainian Shield,” a mineral-rich region stretching across Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk, extending further to Kirovohrad, Poltava, and Kharkiv.
What is hidden in the underground
Before Russia’s invasion in February 2022, the mining sector contributed 6.1% to Ukraine’s GDP and accounted for 30% of the country’s exports. Ukraine possesses a range of essential minerals, known as ‘critical’ due to their significance in technology production, defense applications, and renewable energy. Some key examples include copper, nickel, lithium, and titanium. In 2019, the European Commission reported that Ukraine provided 7% of the world’s titanium supply, a metal crucial for constructing nuclear power plants and aircraft.
Ukraine is believed to have the largest lithium reserves in Europe, with an estimated 500,000 tonnes of the mineral, which is essential for battery production. Before Russia’s invasion, the country also supplied 20% of the world’s graphite, a crucial component for nuclear power plants and electric vehicle batteries. The country has Europe’s largest deposits of uranium, an estimated 2 percent of world reserves.
Ukraine is also rich in other raw materials, including coal, iron ore, and manganese. However, due to the ongoing war, the current state of its mineral resources remains uncertain, particularly regarding the presence and quantity of rare earth elements.
A pre-war assessment of 109 critical mineral deposits across Ukraine identified several rare earth elements, including cerium, neodymium, erbium, yttrium, and lanthanum, as cited in Ukrainian mineral data.
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