This was stated by US President Donald Trump on Fox News channel.

At the same time, Trump says that the United States must gain access to Ukraine's natural resources, regardless of whether a peace agreement is reached with Russia and what the outcome of the war will be.

"They (Ukrainians) can make a deal (to end the war with Russia). They may not agree or make a deal. One day they may or may not become part of Russia. But all the money we spent, I said I wanted it back. And I told them that I wanted the equivalent of 500 billion dollars in rare earth minerals. And they've essentially already agreed to do that," Trump said.

Donald Trump noted that Washington has allocated more than $300 billion to Ukraine, while Europe has allocated about $100 billion.

This is not the first time that Donald Trump has said that he wants to receive rare earth metals from Ukraine in exchange for American aid. Zelensky said that the authorities in Kiev are open to working with Western partners to extract minerals in exchange for assistance. At the same time, the President of Ukraine noted that about half of the country's rare earth metal deposits are located in territories "occupied" by Russia, centralasia.media reports.