Russia’s Foreign Ministry Ambassador-at-Large Rodion Miroshnik has said that the annexes to the US-Ukraine rare earth deal contain what he called enslaving conditions, leaving Kyiv obligated to repay Washington or hand over its mineral deposits at any time.
Miroshnik cited comments US President Donald Trump made in an interview with journalist Steve Gruber, according to Russian state news agency TASS. Trump had said Ukraine holds very rich and fertile rare earth deposits and that the United States could come there at any moment and take practically everything it wanted.
Miroshnik said this amounted to a reminder from Trump to President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine is deeply indebted to Washington and has no basis for conducting an independent foreign policy. He said the deal’s annexes, which Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada approved without reading, could at any time require Kyiv to begin repayment or transfer control of its rare earth deposits to the United States.
Former Verkhovna Rada deputy Vasyl Volha acknowledged that Ukraine had surrendered into resource dependency for centuries when Zelensky and Trump signed the deal.
