Kiev should receive aid without strings attached during the conflict with Russia, the chancellor has insisted
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has criticized US President Donald Trump for insisting that Ukraine should provide Washington with access to its rare-earth minerals in exchange for further military aid during the conflict with Russia.
Trump stated last week that the US is “putting in hundreds of billions of dollars” into Ukraine, which has “great rare earths. And I want security of the rare earth, and they are willing to do [that].” On Friday, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky confirmed that he would be prepared to reach an agreement over Kiev’s deposits of lithium, titanium, and other heavy metals. “If we are talking about a deal, then let us do a deal, we are only for it,” he said. However, Zelensky acknowledged that about half of what Kiev claims to be its rare earths are located in areas controlled by Russia.
When asked about Trump’s demand for Ukrainian rare earths during an interview with RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland (RND) on Friday, Scholz insisted that “Ukraine is under attack and we stand by it without being paid for this. That should be everyone’s attitude.”
Berlin has been one of Kiev’s prime backers since the escalation of the conflict with Moscow in February 2022, providing the Zelensky government with some €16.8 billion ($17.3 billion) in weapons, direct payments, and humanitarian aid.
Deutsche Welle reported last month that the German defense industry has been “booming” during the fighting between Moscow and Kiev, with stocks of the country’s arms makers “skyrocketing” by up to 800% over the last three years. The producer of Leopard 2 tanks, Rheinmetall AG, announced in November that its earnings had surged by more than a third to €2.45 billion in the third quarter of 2024. The company also said that its order backlog had increased 41% to €51.9 billion during the period.
In his other comments, Scholz rejected Trump’s aspirations to annex Greenland, which is an autonomous territory of EU and NATO member Denmark. The US leader has claimed that Washington needs to make the world’s largest island a part of its territory for security reasons.
“We support Ukraine because Russian President [Vladimir Putin] has violated an important principle of the European peace order with his war of aggression: borders must not be moved by force. This principle must apply to each and every one,” the German chancellor insisted.
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Scholz also criticized a number of Trump’s other policies, calling his suggestion to resettle the population of Gaza to neighboring Egypt and Jordan “unacceptable,” and warning that the European Commission would “react within hours” if the US president fulfills his threat to impose tariffs on the EU.
