US Treasury Secretary Arrives in Kyiv Under Missile Barrage to Present Rare Earth Elements Deal

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent met with the Minister of Finance of Ukraine, Serhiy Marchenko, in Kyiv on Feb. 12, 2024, the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine reported. 

In the hours after a massive Russian missile attack on Kyiv, Bessent and Marchenko discussed the state of Ukraine’s economy and the impact of the full-scale war on public finances. 

They agreed that Ukraine and the US need to maintain a systematic dialogue to achieve their common goal – a fair and lasting peace for Ukraine, according to the ministry statement. 

Marchenko welcomed Bessent’s appointment as US Secretary of the Treasury and thanked him for visiting Ukraine.

Bessent also met with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky. He presented the first draft of the rare earth elements agreement, Voice of America reported.

Ukraine hopes to reach an agreement on mineral resources with Washington at the Munich Security Conference, to be held on Feb. 14-16, Zelensky told Voice of America.

“I am sending Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent to Ukraine to meet President Zelensky. This War MUST and WILL END SOON — Too much Death and Destruction,” Trump wrote. 

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

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NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte issued a stark appeal to young Russians not to fight in the war in Ukraine, saying they will be sent to the front with poor training, bad equipment and a high chance of being killed, wounded or abandoned. He backed his warning with NATO estimates that Russia is losing more than 30,000 soldiers a month – more in a single month than the Soviet Union lost during its entire 10-year war in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Trump’s idea of exchanging support for Ukraine in return for access to the country’s rare earth elements and other in-demand raw materials could boost its economy despite obstacles of outdated data, large capital needs and corruption.

Bessent said that the US and Ukraine share “common values,” “common security,” and that “we would like to continue intertwining our common economy.”