The War in Eastern Ukraine! Implementing Trump's Plan in Practice May Not Be So Easy

US President Donald Trump has made it clear that he is ready to give Ukraine more weapons in exchange for access to rare earth metals, but implementing this plan in practice may not be so easy, writes The Wall Street Journal.

According to the publication, many of the resources of greatest interest to the United States are located either in territories occupied by Russia or under threat of occupation. Ultimately, access to Ukraine's valuable natural resources will depend, at least in part, on the battle for eastern Ukraine, where Russian troops continue to advance, the WSJ emphasizes.

This is especially true for rare earth elements, which are needed in high-tech industries, including defense and renewable energy.

However, Western experts are skeptical about the possibility of mining minerals, including rare earth metals, in Ukraine in the near future. Wolf-Christian Paes, a senior researcher on armed conflicts at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, emphasizes that the biggest drawback of this plan is that most of the reserves are located in areas of Ukraine that are already occupied by Russia or are very close to the front line.

"And that means that no one will be able to extract and process the materials", the expert notes.

The researcher adds that without lasting peace in Ukraine, access to these assets will be difficult.

"A ceasefire is not enough", Paes says.

Another expert, Benchmark Minerals Intelligence price analyst George Ingvall, expresses the opinion that in addition to the fact that rare earth metals are very expensive to extract, the known deposits in Ukraine are much smaller than in the United States.

In turn, the political analyst and people's deputy of Ukraine of the 8th convocation Vadim Denisenko previously stated that the idea is to open Ukrainian resources to Western allies after reaching a peace agreement.

Agreement on critical mineral resources between Ukraine and the United States - what is known

On March 4, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Ukraine was ready to sign an agreement on minerals with the United States “at any time and in any convenient format“.

Early versions of the minerals deal that the United States offered to Ukraine did not mention security guarantees, but proposed the creation of a $500 billion fund to “compensate“ for American aid, which was several times smaller in volume.

Zelensky announced that the final version of the agreement does not mention “ neither 500, nor 350, nor 100” billion "debt" that US President Donald Trump has falsely claimed to exist. Following this framework agreement, Ukraine and the United States will need to conclude another agreement that will regulate the operation of the Ukraine Reconstruction Investment Fund, a bilateral structure to be established by Ukraine and the United States, where Ukraine will invest 50% of future revenues from new mineral developments.

On March 11, the presidential administration announced that Ukraine and the United States had agreed to conclude a comprehensive agreement on the development of critical mineral resources "as soon as possible".

On March 19, the White House stated that the priority now is achieving peace in Ukraine, not an agreement on rare earth metals.