Trump to Ukraine: We'll Swap Aid for Vital Minerals

The US and Ukraine appear to have settled on a way to keep American military aid flowing to the nation—Ukraine will provide rare earth minerals vital to the high-tech industry.

• Trump: "We're telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths," Trump said Monday. "We're looking to do a deal with Ukraine where they're going to secure what we're giving them with their rare earths and other things."
• Ukraine: It welcomes the deal, reports the Washington Post. In fact, President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed the idea to Trump when the two met in November ahead of the election, according to the newspaper.

• Russia not thrilled: Not surprisingly, a Kremlin spokesperson criticized the plan, saying it would be better if the US provided no aid whatsoever to Ukraine. "If we call things as they are, this is a proposal to buy help—in other words, not to give it unconditionally, or for some other reasons, but specifically to provide it on a commercial basis," said Dmitry Peskov, per Reuters. (The Post story points out that Ukraine officials figured a businesslike idea like this would appeal to Trump.)
• Rare earths: It appears that Trump isn't using a strict definition of rare earths, "a group of 17 metals used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cellphones, and other electronics," per Reuters. Trump may be more interested in minerals such as lithium, titanium, and uranium, which aren't rare earth metals.

(More President Trump stories.)