Zelenskyy: Russia looting Ukraine’s rare earth wealth for free

The enemy is destroying the ability to extract and process Ukrainian minerals, and its devastating actions are leading to environmental disasters and losses for the Ukrainian people. "Putin is seizing our territories and getting priceless minerals in the temporarily occupied territories for free," he said.

"They (the Russians - ed.) have destroyed, sawed off whole factories, flooded mines. This is an environmental disaster, but first of all it is something that belongs to the Ukrainian people."

Ukraine must to be protected from further Russian attacks, especially the central part of the country, which contains deposits of expensive minerals and rare earth metals, including titanium, manganese, etc.

Zelenskyy mentioned gas and oil production in the territories controlled by Kyiv, noting that the Black Sea shelf, which is currently occupied, also holds significant value. 

"This is money, this is our land, and this is big money. Today it is occupied. It is very expensive for us."

On Feb. 4, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Ukraine was open to mining rare metals in partnership with other countries, including U.S. companies.

“We are open to developing minerals with our partners who help us defend our land and push back the enemy with their weapons, presence, and sanction packages,” he said.

“And that's perfectly fair. I mentioned this back in September [2024] when we had a meeting with President Trump.”