“WHAT KIND OF PARTNERSHIP IS THIS?”
Trump has asked for “US$500 billion worth” of rare earth minerals to make up for aid given to Kyiv – a price tag Ukraine has balked at and which does not correspond with published US aid figures.
“There are no American obligations in the agreement regarding guarantees or investments, everything about them is very vague, and they want to extract US$500 billion from us,” the Ukrainian source told AFP of the proposed deal.
“What kind of partnership is this? … And why do we have to give US$500 billion, there is no answer,” the source said, adding that Ukraine had proposed amendments to the draft.
The United States has given Ukraine more than US$60 billion in military aid since Russia’s invasion, according to official figures – the largest such contribution among Kyiv’s allies but substantially lower than Trump’s US$500 billion figure.
The Kiel Institute, a German economic research body, said that from 2022 until the end of 2024, the United States gave 114.2 billion euros (US$119.8 billion) in financial, humanitarian and military aid in total.
