On March 11, following talks between the United States and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine War, and the US agreed to lift a temporary pause on military aid to Ukraine and intelligence sharing between the two countries.
The Trump administration had paused aid after a chaotic public confrontation between the leaders of the two countries in the Oval Office.
This announcement comes only hours after Ukrainian forces targeted Moscow with the largest long-range drone bombardment since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine War.
Will the US control Ukraine’s mineral wealth?
In a joint statement, Ukraine and the US also agreed to conclude “as soon as possible” a deal regarding US control over Ukraine’s vast mineral wealth. Some analysis argues that such a deal will effectively make Ukraine a US “colony”. The initial deal proposed by the Trump administration would have required Ukraine to utilize its mineral wealth to repay USD 500 billion in military aid received from the US. However, the latest deal seems to have softened the terms: it would entail the establishment of an “investment fund” with joint US and Ukrainian ownership, in which Ukraine would contribute 50% of revenue earned from future monetization of its publicly owned natural resource assets.
Ukraine’s mineral wealth is vast, with the country controlling over 100 major deposits of critical minerals including titanium, uranium, oil and natural gas, lithium, rare earth minerals, manganese, zirconium, and graphite. Such natural wealth is of special interest to some of the ultra-rich in the Trump administration, with tech billionaire Elon Musk referring to lithium as “the new oil.” In 2020, Musk responded to accusations that he had supported the coup in Bolivia for its lithium resources. “We will coup whoever we want! Deal with it,” Musk wrote on Twitter (before he owned the platform.”
