Rare earths were part of Ukraine’s Victory Plan talks with U.S. under Biden, Blinken says

He said this in an interview with CNBC.

"Part of the victory package that President Zelenskyy put on the table in the last 6 months of our administration included us working with them on rare earths, on critical minerals," Blinken noted.

According to him, the U.S., under President Joe Biden, sought to direct its investments into Ukraine, including into the minerals sector.

At the same time, the former U.S. Secretary of State criticized the proposal from the administration of the current leader, Donald Trump, concerning a deal on natural resources.

"What I think we saw put forward in the deal that was proposed was basically a protection racket, without the protection. We want all of this stuff, but you're really not going to get much for it in terms of protection against Russia from us," Blinken emphasized.

U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal

On Thursday, March 27, President Zelenskyy stated that the U.S. proposed signing a full agreement on natural resources instead of a framework agreement.

On March 28, the media reported that the administration of President Donald Trump had returned a demand in the deal regarding natural resources, requiring Ukraine to reimburse all the assistance the U.S. provided after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.

During the hour of questions to the government in the Verkhovna Rada on March 28, Ukraine's Minister of Economy, Yulia Svyrydenko, confirmed that the government had received a draft agreement from the U.S. regarding natural resources.

Subsequently, Zelenskyy commented on the new American draft agreement on Ukrainian rare-earth minerals and mentioned that there were elements that had previously been rejected by both sides.

On March 31, U.S. President Donald Trump stated that the Ukrainian leader wanted to refuse the important deal regarding natural resources.

On the same day, it became known that Ukraine and the U.S. had discussed the American draft agreement on minerals for the first time.

On April 8, Bloomberg reported that the Ukrainian and U.S. delegations would discuss the natural resources agreement on April 11-12.

On the same day, the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha, stated that Ukraine had already developed its position regarding the agreement with the U.S. on natural resources and was currently forming a group to go for the negotiations.

On April 9, President Zelenskyy announced that the technical negotiations on the natural resources agreement, scheduled for Washington on April 11-12, would be the first meeting where they planned to work out the main principles of the agreement. In particular, Ukraine would advocate for parity in managing the fund.