Volodymyr Zelensky has presented Ukrainian MPs with a so-called "victory plan", which specifically stipulates the US and the EU’s joint use of Ukraine's critical natural resources and its economic potential.
“There are critical metals in Ukraine worth trillions of US dollars,” Zelensky said, referencing uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other “strategically valuable resources.”
Gilbert Doctorow, an international relations and Russian affairs analyst, told Sputnik that as “Ukraine has no sovereignty to lose” and “has a failing economy”, its “single most visible resource”, namely, black earth lands “have already been substantially (40%) sold off to international consortiums of agribusiness.”
Sputnik studies open data to explore which rare metals Ukraine has and what is the West's interest in them:
Uranium: Ukraine was the world’s tenth-largest producer of uranium in 2023, with annual output standing at about 1,000 tons.
Titanium: The country has about 7% of the recorded world reserves of titanium ores; annual output stood at 5,400 tons. Location: Dnepropetrovsk, Zhitomir (north-western Ukraine), Kirovograd (сentral Ukraine) regions.
Lithium: Ukraine holds close to 500,000 tons of lithium oxide, a source of lithium; it makes the country’s lithium reserves one of the largest in the world. Location: Kirovograd, Zhitomir (сentral Ukraine) regions.
Graphite: Ukraine produced 5,200 tons of graphite in previous years, accounting for 0.5% of global production. Location: Odessa (southern Ukraine) and Kirovograd regions.
Territorial allocation of resources by regions of Ukraine.
© Sputnik
“They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham stated earlier, adding that he doesn’t want “to give that money and those assets to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to share with China.”
On the other hand, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declined to welcome Zelensky’s "victory plan," saying only that he and the allies "take note" of it.