Ukraine wants Kyiv to trade resources for US aid: Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump has suggested Ukraine may fall under Russian control "someday", as he called for the war-torn country to share its natural resources in exchange for US assistance.

Trump, whose return to power has thrown doubt over billions of dollars in US aid to Ukraine, told Fox News on Monday that he had told Kyiv he wanted "$500 billion worth of rare earth".

Ukrainian officials had "essentially agreed" to the proposal, he claimed.

Ukraine has "tremendously valuable land in terms of rare earth, in terms of oil and gas, in terms of other things," Trump said.

"I want to have our money secured because we're spending hundreds of billions of dollars."

"They may make a deal, they may not make a deal. They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday. But we are going to have all this money in there and I say I want it back."

Trump, who has been vocal about the need for a quick end to the conflict, had earlier floated the idea of meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky this week.

Further, CNN in its report said that these remarks of Trump are likely to please the Kremlin, which has illegally annexed four Ukrainian regions since launching its invasion.

US envoy to Ukraine and Russia, General Keith Kellogg, announced he would discuss their vision for peace in Ukraine with allies at the Munich Security Conference, on February 14-16.

Kellogg is then expected to visit Kyiv four days later, according to Ukrainian state media.

The Kremlin echoed Trump's remarks.

The Russian invasion, which began in February 2022, was expected to quickly overwhelm Ukraine.

However, nearly three years into the conflict, Russia controls only about one-fifth of Ukraine's territory.

In 2023, Moscow conducted a controversial referendum in the regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, attempting to legitimise its annexation of these territories. (IANS)

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