Russia-Ukraine battle reside: Trump says Zelenskyy to go to White Home and is about to signal uncommon earth minerals deal

Suspilne, Ukraine’s state broadcaster, stories that staff are trying to restore harm in Dnipropetrovsk area after what it described as “a massive attack” hit an vitality facility.

Ukraine’s air defences shot down 110 of 177 drones launched by Russia in an in a single day assault on Wednesday, the air power mentioned in quotes carried by Reuters. The assertion mentioned that 66 different drones have been “lost”, in reference to the army’s use of digital warfare to redirect them.

Ukraine’s military chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, mentioned he mentioned continued army help for Kyiv and battlefield developments with British Defence Chief Antony Radakin, in accordance with a report from Reuters.

“Admiral Sir Antony Radakin once again assured me of the United Kingdom’s readiness to provide military assistance to the Ukrainian Defence Forces,” Syrskyi mentioned in a press release on Fb.

What are crucial minerals?

Crucial minerals are the metals and different uncooked supplies wanted for the manufacturing of hi-tech merchandise, significantly these related to the inexperienced vitality transition, but in addition shopper electronics, synthetic intelligence infrastructure and weapons.

Because the world’s financial system and know-how transforms, the worth of crucial minerals has soared and geopolitical competitors for entry to them is rising. In 2023, the Worldwide Vitality Company (IEA) estimated that the marketplace for vitality transition minerals had reached £320bn in 2022, double its worth 5 years earlier. And if international locations absolutely implement their clear vitality and local weather pledges, demand is predicted to greater than double by 2030 and triple by 2040, the company says.

What are uncommon earth components?

Uncommon earth components (REEs) are a subset of 17 crucial minerals which can be variously indispensable for cellphones, electrical automobiles, missile steering methods and different electronics, industrial and vitality purposes.

Regardless of their title, a lot of the uncommon earth components will not be significantly uncommon, however their extraction and refining is fiendishly tough – and environmentally extremely harmful – which means manufacturing is concentrated in only a few locations, primarily China.

REEs embody europium, utilized in nuclear energy station management rods; dysprosium, gandolinium and praseodymium, used within the magnets in your cell phone; and gadolinium, holmium and ytterbium, utilized in lasers amongst different issues.

What crucial minerals does Ukraine have?

A 2022 article by the chair of Ukraine’s Affiliation of Geologists, Hanna Liventseva, claimed her nation contained about 5% of the world’s mineral sources, regardless of masking solely 0.4% of the globe’s floor, because of a fancy geology that takes in all three of the primary elements of the earth’s crust.

In line with Ukraine’s personal knowledge, cited by Reuters, the nation has deposits of twenty-two of the 34 minerals recognized as crucial by the EU, together with uncommon earths comparable to lanthanum, cerium, neodymium, erbium and yttrium.

Earlier than the outbreak of battle with Russia, Ukraine was a key provider of titanium, producing about 7% of worldwide output in 2019, in accordance with European Fee analysis. It additionally claimed 500,000 tons of lithium reserves, and one-fifth of the world’s graphite, a vital part of nuclear energy stations.

Donald Trump has mentioned that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is more likely to go to the White Home on Friday to signal a uncommon earth minerals deal to pay for US army help to defend in opposition to Russia’s full-scale invasion.

The announcement adopted days of negotiations between the US and Ukraine during which Zelenskyy alleged the US was pressuring him to signal a deal value greater than $500bn that will power “10 generations” of Ukrainians to pay it again.

Media shops reported late on Tuesday that the phrases of an settlement had been reached.

“I hear that he’s coming on Friday,” Trump informed reporters within the Oval Workplace. “Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to. And he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.”

In line with the Monetary Occasions, which first reported the deal, the brand new phrases of the deal didn’t embody the onerous calls for for a proper to $500bn in potential income from exploiting the sources, which embody uncommon earth metals and Ukrainian oil and fuel sources.

“Without the United States and its money and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time”, Trump mentioned on Tuesday. He additionally mentioned “some form of peacekeeping” in Ukraine could be required after any peace deal.

In different developments”

• Emmanuel Macron is because of temporary European leaders following his assembly with Donald Trump at 9am GMT. As a part of a continued Europe-wide push on safety, defence ministers from throughout the continent are anticipated to satisfy in London on Sunday for a unexpectedly organized summit.

• Calls are rising for tons of of billions in Russian authorities wealth frozen within the worldwide banking system for use in full for Ukraine’s defence. Europe and the G7 have discovered methods to make use of curiosity from the monetary property to assist Ukraine within the battle, however the capital has remained locked up for the reason that February 2022 invasion.

• Ukraine obtained 500,000 artillery shells purchased exterior Europe in 2024 below an initiative run by the Czech Republic, mentioned its prime minister, Petr Fiala.

• Moscow has dismissed Donald Trump’s declare that Russia would settle for European peacekeeping troops in Ukraine, Pjotr Sauer writes. Addressing reporters, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov mentioned the Kremlin had nothing so as to add to the overseas ministry’s place on the unacceptability of Nato peacekeepers in Ukraine.

• The price of reconstruction and restoration in Ukraine after three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion will probably be $524bn over the following decade, in accordance with a report launched by the Authorities of Ukraine, the World Financial institution Group, the European Fee, and the United Nations.