German Chancellor Scholz Slams Trump’s Ukraine Rare Earths Demand

German chancellor Olaf Scholz slammed as “selfish and self-serving” Donald Trump’s demands for Ukrainian rare earths in exchange for US military aid, in an interview published on Saturday. 

Rare earth group metals used to transform power into motion in a vast array of things ranging from electric vehicles to missiles and there is no substitute for them.

“Ukraine is under attack and we are helping it, without asking to be paid in return. This should be everyone’s position,” Scholz told the RND media group, when asked about Trump’s demands for a possible quid pro quo for US aid.

The German chancellor had already described Trump’s demands as “very selfish” on Monday after a European Union summit in Brussels.

He had said Ukraine’s resources should be used to finance everything needed after the war, such as reconstruction and maintaining a strong army.  

“It would be very selfish, very self-serving” to demand something from Ukraine in exchange for aid, he said.

Trump said he wanted “equalization” from Ukraine for Washington’s financial support, adding: “We’re telling Ukraine they have very valuable rare earths. 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.”

He added: “I want to have security of rare earth. We’re putting in hundreds of billions of dollars. They have great rare earth. And I want security of the rare earth, and they’re willing to do it.”

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Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Hungary and Ukraine have reached a “comprehensive agreement” to broaden language, cultural, educational and political rights for roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, following several weeks of expert-level talks. Kyiv has pledged to write the agreed measures into Ukrainian law, reflecting them in the EU accession action plan. Budapest indicated it would support opening the first negotiating cluster for Ukraine.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Washington and Kyiv were planning “meetings and talks” after Trump raised a possible meeting with him next week. 

Zelensky said on Tuesday that Ukraine was ready to receive investment from US firms in its rare earth elements – or metals widely used in electronics. 

In a peace plan unveiled in October, Zelensky had, without specifically mentioning rare earths, proposed a “special agreement” with his country’s partners, allowing for “common protection” and “joint exploitation” of strategic resources. 

He had cited as examples “uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite and other strategic resources of great value.”