Oval Office Outburst Reveals Flaws in U.S.-Ukraine Rare Earth Minerals Deal
spectrum.ieee.org
A chaotic Oval Office press conference on Feb. 28 revealed a nonsensical U.S.-Ukraine deal for rare earths, baffling experts who knew Ukraine lacks viable deposits. Is Trump’s rare-earth strategy misguided political theater? With China dominating the market, why ignore U.S. resources? #RareEarths #PoliticalDrama

Experts say proposed deal with U.S. makes no sense

“If you want critical minerals, Ukraine ain’t the place to look for them,” declares Jack Lifton, executive chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute. “It’s a fantasy. There’s no point to any of this. There’s some other agenda going on here. I can’t believe that anybody in Washington actually believes that it makes sense to get rare earths in Ukraine.”

The reason it is called a rare earth minerals deal is to make it look like Ukraine is giving up nothing or next to nothing. Actual content of deal includes existing pipelines, and Odessa Port, being gifted to US. Also plenty of other resource rights.