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Trump seeks rare earth metals from Zelensky as payback for ‘close to $300bn’ in US aid
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Donald Trump has issued a demand to Ukraine in which Kyiv guarantees supplies of rare earth minerals to the US as payment for war aid.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky previously floated the idea as part of his plan to end the war with Russia.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Monday, Mr Trump said: “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.”
It comes as A Russian missile strike damaged an apartment bloc and administrative buildings, killing five people and injuring at least 30 in the town of Izium in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
Russian forces hit the town’s central district using a ballistic missile, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram citing preliminary information. Rescuers were working at the site and at least one person was trapped under the rubble, he added.
Posting footage of the aftermath of the strike, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote: “This brutality cannot be tolerated. Maximum pressure must be applied to Russia – through military force, sanctions, and diplomacy – to stop the terror and protect lives.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has vowed the “brutality” of the Russian missile strike on Izyum, which has killed five and injured 20, cannot be tolerated.
He posted a video of the aftermath of the strike, which took place earlier today.
“This brutality cannot be tolerated. Maximum pressure must be applied to Russia – through military force, sanctions, and diplomacy – to stop the terror and protect lives,” he wrote.
A Russian missile strike damaged an apartment bloc and administrative buildings, killing four people and injuring at least 20 in the town of Izyum in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region, the regional governor said on Tuesday.
Russian forces hit the town’s central district using a ballistic missile, governor Oleh Syniehubov said on Telegram citing preliminary information.
Rescuers were working at the site and at least one person was trapped under the rubble, he added.
A five-storey residential block was damaged and several administrative buildings were partially destroyed as a result of the strike, according to Syniehubov.
Kharkiv region, bordering Russia, regularly comes under Russian air attacks.
Eddy, 28, said he was feeling positive and had no regrets despite his horrific injuries inflicted by a suspected Russian drone strike
Armen Sarkisyan was accused by Ukraine of aiding Russia’s war in Donetsk
Ukraine’s military said on Tuesday that it shot down 37 out of 65 Russian drones overnight in an attack that damaged businesses, a railway depot and homes around the nation.
Ukraine’s state railways Ukrzaliznytsia said Russia attacked a depot in Dnipropetrovsk region, causing significant damage to infrastructure and premises.
The attack also caused fires at three private enterprises in the central Cherkasy region, its governor Ihor Taburets said via Telegram.
In the northeastern region of Sumy, it damaged eight residential buildings and one apartment building, regional authorities said.
Of the 65 drones, 28 more did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare, Ukraine’s military said.
Ukrenergo, the country’s national grid operator, reported emergency power cuts in eight regions on Tuesday, citing damages from the missile and drone attacks.
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that comments by US president Donald Trump suggesting he wants Ukraine to supply Washington with rare earth minerals show he now wants Kyiv to pay for US assistance rather than receive it for free.
Mr Trump told reporters on Monday that Ukraine was willing to engage in the exchange, adding that he wants “equalization” from Ukraine for Washington’s “close to $300 billion” in support.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the comment demonstrated the US is no longer willing to provide free aid to Kyiv.
An 18-year-old British volunteer who enlisted to help defend Ukraine was killed by a Russian drone just minutes into his first mission, according to a report.
James Wilton, from Huddersfield, travelled to Ukraine aged 17 and with no prior military experience, where he was reportedly given a crash training course by Ukrainian instructors.
But his first mission on Ukraine’s eastern front on 23 July 2024 was also to be his last, after James and his comrade found themselves being hunted by multiple Russian drones in an open field with no cover to run for.
“I’ll never get over this. I didn’t want him to go but his heart was set on it. He wanted to help Ukraine,” his father Graham told The Sun.
Andy Gregory reports:
James Wilton, aged 18, was cremated in Ukraine after his death last July
North Korean troops have been pulled back from the frontline amid devastating losses, according to Ukrainian and American officials.
Kim Jong Un’s forces have not been seen on the battlefield for around three weeks, Ukrainian special forces said, according to the New York Times.
Pyongyang sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to help with Vladimir Putin’s war effort in November last year, four months after Kyiv’s troops seized Russian territory in Kursk.
They quickly gained a reputation as being fierce, “committed” soldiers, who would often choose suicide over surrender, but were hampered by poor tactics and a language barrier.
In January, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service said 300 of Kim’s soldiers have been killed and another 2,700 wounded since joining the conflict.
Alexander Butler reports:
Kim Jong Un sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to join Vladimir Putin’s troops in November last year
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