The European Union has offered Ukraine a “mutually beneficial” deal on access to critical resources, European Commissioner for Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné said.
Séjourné said he presented the proposal to Ukrainian officials during a visit to Kyiv on February 24. He noted that Ukraine could supply 21 of the 30 critical materials essential to Europe as part of a proposed partnership.
“The added value Europe offers is that we will never demand a deal that’s not mutually beneficial,” Séjourné said, as quoted by AFP. He didn’t specify which resources were under discussion.
Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump has been pressuring Kyiv to sign a deal granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s rare earth metal deposits. According to U.S. sources, the proposal would require Kyiv to establish a joint U.S.-Ukraine fund to manage resource extraction rights, with the White House expecting Ukraine to compensate $500 billion — the amount the Trump administration claims the U.S. has spent supporting Kyiv over three years of war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has so far refused, arguing that the deal lacks security guarantees and disputing Trump’s estimate of U.S. aid, saying the actual figure is closer to $100 billion.
