Russian army advancing toward mineral-rich Ukrainian territories — expert

She shared the information on Espreso TV.

"The Kremlin is spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bombs and missiles, which, by the way, are often made from Ukrainian resources—ores that, until 2022, were exported to Russia or other friendly countries for the production of weapons and military operations," noted Orynchak.

According to the Executive Director of the National Mining Association of Ukraine, the world is now discussing mineral resources. This boom began in 2018 between the EU and China, as it concerns critical raw materials for the European Union and our Euro-Atlantic partners. Ukraine, in turn, is 10–30 years behind in this technological process, as we lacked a proper industrial policy, which we still don't have. As a result, instead of effectively managing these resources and strengthening our independence, particularly in gas, we have failed to utilize these minerals.

"Russia knows about these resources because, even during the Soviet Union, geological information about the location of deposits was sent to Moscow. This is precisely why Russia started the war, and the full-scale invasion only highlighted this factor. If we compare the geological and military maps, we can see that the Russian army is moving toward those deposits where the most valuable resources are concentrated, which are necessary for our country to survive, even during the war," emphasized Orynchak.

The Executive Director also added that everything extracted from Ukrainian territory, including investments in the mining industry, processing, and manufacturing products from our raw materials, goes to the state budget. These are direct and indirect taxes, salary funds, and rent payments, which allow us to maintain and create a new, stronger, and more technologically advanced army.

"But to prevent us from achieving this, Russia takes everything that is beneath our feet and could strengthen our country. In particular, this includes the Sumy region and Hlukhiv quartzites, as this resource is used for the production of high-tech weapons, semiconductors, radios, GPS systems, gun and bullet casings, missiles - for various technologies where these elements are essential," Orynchak explained.

• On April 3, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a Ukrainian delegation would soon arrive in Washington to sign the minerals agreement.