Kyiv’s buried treasure An on-the-ground look at the Ukrainian mineral deposits Trump wants to get his hands on
In late March, Bloomberg and the Financial Times published details of a new draft agreement on mineral resources between Ukraine and the United States, which American officials had handed over to Kyiv just days earlier. While the original deal was expected to cover only rare earth elements, the latest version now includes coal, oil, natural gas, and strategic metals — and would give Washington broad control over investments in infrastructure tied to resource extraction, including roads, railways, ports, mines, and processing facilities. So far, Ukrainian officials have been measured in their public comments about the U.S.’s demands. However, one official, speaking anonymously, likened the terms to “robbery.” As the negotiations continue, Meduza shares a photo report on how the ongoing war has affected some of the sites under discussion.
Ukrainian experts reviewing a new draft resource agreement from the United States — one that now extends far beyond rare earth minerals — have warned it could jeopardize the country’s path toward European integration. One government official, speaking anonymously to The Financial Times, described the U.S. proposal as “robbery.” The British outlet The Times framed it as yet another attempt to “humiliate” Ukraine’s leadership, while also noting that it remains unclear how such a sweeping deal could be implemented in a country still at war, with parts of its territory under occupation.
So far, Ukrainian officials have avoided public criticism of the proposal, saying only that negotiations are ongoing. “Any public discussion of this agreement only harms the talks and makes it harder to engage constructively with our American partners,” said First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko. President Volodymyr Zelensky has said only that “the terms keep changing,” and added that he currently has no plans to travel to Washington to sign the agreement. (An earlier version of the deal was left unsigned in February, when what was meant to be a straightforward trip to formalize the agreement devolved into an Oval Office shouting match.)
Shortly after the start of the full-scale invasion, The Washington Post reported that Russian forces had seized territories containing 63 percent of Ukraine’s coal reserves, 11 percent of its oil, 20 percent of its natural gas, 42 percent of its metals, and 33 percent of its rare earth and other strategic minerals.
Here’s a look at what the war has done to several of these sites — deposits the United States now hopes to gain access to.
Graphite in the Kirovohrad region
Ukraine’s only natural graphite mining operation — Zavallivskyi Graphite — is located in the Kirovohrad region. In December 2024, the company suspended operations due to a sharp rise in electricity and logistics costs, compounded by falling global graphite prices, according to the National Association of Mining Industry of Ukraine. The organization noted that Ukraine will now have to seek alternative sources of raw graphite abroad.
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Titanium in the Zhytomyr region
The Stremyhorodske titanium-apatite deposit, the largest of its kind in Europe, is located in the Zhytomyr region. Ukraine is one of only seven countries in the world that produce titanium sponge, the base material for titanium metal, Newsweek wrote in January 2023. The outlet noted that the U.S. is forced to import this strategically critical metal, with China as the largest producer and Russia holding a 13 percent share of the global market.
According to Newsweek, control over titanium reserves is vital for both the U.S. and Russia. If Ukraine prevails, the U.S. and its allies could establish a new supply channel for titanium. But if Russia succeeds in seizing the deposits, Moscow would gain greater global leverage over a resource that is playing an increasingly strategic role.
Coal in the Donetsk Region
In April 2023, Forbes estimated the total value of Ukraine’s mineral resources at $14.8 trillion. Of that, $9.1 trillion was attributed to hard coal reserves, and another $261 billion to brown coal. However, in August 2022 — just months after the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion — The Washington Post reported that 63 percent of Ukraine’s coal reserves were located in eastern territories outside Kyiv’s control, primarily in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Ukrainian authorities continue to control the Western Donbas basin, which lies within the Dnipropetrovsk region.
