KYIV, Ukraine: Ukraine wants to collaborate with partner countries on postwar projects worth billions of dollars not just in mining rare earth elements, but also in energy and construction sectors to help rebuild the country, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Wednesday.
Sybiha responded to comments by President Donald Trump who said Monday that he wanted to gain access to Ukraine’s valuable rare earth materials as a condition for continuing support for its war against Russia.
Ukrainian officials have said Russia wants to get its hands on Ukraine’s vast natural resources.
Kyiv intends to offer “guarantees of the presence of major businesses in Ukraine and the vested interests of our closest allies — the United States — in developing these (rare earth) deposits and ensuring their protection,” the foreign minister said.
But cooperation should not be limited to rare earth materials, Sybiha said in a news conference alongside visiting UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
Ukraine has “huge potential” to become a guarantor of energy security in Europe by buying liquefied natural gas from the United States and storing it in its massive underground tanks for later distribution, he said.
Sybiha also said there was “joint interest” from Ukrainian and American businesses in the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine, estimated to cost more than $400 billion. “This will be one of the largest projects of this century and, accordingly, one of the largest opportunities for our allies.”
Meanwhile, Zelensky said in an interview broadcast Tuesday night that the war has killed 45,100 Ukrainian troops. The fighting also has injured close to 390,000 troops, he told Piers Morgan Uncensored on YouTube.
On Dec. 8, he said Ukraine had lost some 43,000 soldiers on the battlefield and 370,000 wounded.
Russia hasn’t given its number of killed since September 2022, seven months after its all-out invasion.
If the US stops sending vital military aid, that could also jeopardize European support, Zelensky said in the interview. “Without a doubt, we cannot do without this kind of (Western) support,” he said.
Zelensky said Wednesday that the United States must be part of any Western troop deployment to safeguard a peace deal with Russia and shield against another invasion. Sending only European troops would not be enough, he said.
“Because this is not just a matter of numbers, it is about sharing responsibility and ensuring security guarantees. This cannot be done without the United States of America,” he said at a news conference with Lammy.
Ukrainian forces are slowly losing ground, especially in eastern areas, where they are being pushed backward by their bigger foe.
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed Wednesday that Russian troops had captured the villages of Baranivka in the eastern Donetsk region and Novomlynsk in the northeastern Kharkiv region.
Baranivka’s capture is part of Russia’s effort to envelop Pokrovsk, a key road and rail hub whose loss would compromise a wider area of defense, while the seizure of Novomlynsk is part of Russia’s onslaught toward Kupiansk, another important train junction.
Ukraine keeps hitting the Russian military’s rear areas and supply lines in an effort to disrupt the creeping advance.
Ukraine’s Army General staff claimed Wednesday that Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in the Krasnodar region of Russia overnight, setting it on fire.
According to the General Staff, the oil refinery and petroleum product manufacturing plant supplies gasoline and diesel to the Russian army.
The governor of the Krasnodar region, Veniamin Kondratyev, claimed that fragments of a downed Ukrainian drone hit an oil tank at an oil depot in the village of Novominskaya early Wednesday, sparking a fire.
The fire was put out shortly after and there were no injuries, emergency officials said.
Ukraine wants partner countries to join in postwar development worth billions
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Ukraine wants partner countries to join in postwar development worth billions
- Ukraine has “huge potential” to become a guarantor of energy security in Europe by buying liquefied natural gas from the United States
Philippines says China fired flares toward its patrol plane in the disputed South China Sea
- “The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard
- The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi
MANILA: Chinese forces fired three flares from an island toward a Philippine plane undertaking a routine patrol Saturday in the disputed South China Sea, but the incident did not cause any problem and the aircraft proceeded with its surveillance mission, the Philippine coast guard said.
It was not immediately clear how far the flares that Filipino officials said were fired from the Chinese-occupied Subi Reef were from the Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft of the Philippine fisheries bureau.
Chinese officials did not immediately comment on the incident, Beijing has claimed virtually the entire South China Sea, a key global trade route, and has vowed to staunchly defend its sovereignty. Chinese forces has fired flares from its occupied islands and from its aircraft as a warning for foreign planes to move away from what it calls its airspace in the disputed waters.
“The Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft recorded video footage of three flares fired from the reef toward the aircraft during its lawful overflight,” said the Philippine coast guard, which carried out Saturday’s surveillance flight with the fisheries agency.
“These flights aim to monitor the marine environment, assess the status of fisheries resources and ensure the safety and welfare of Filipino fishermen in the West Philippine Sea,” the coast guard said, using the Philippine name for the stretch of the South China Sea that Manila claims.
The Philippine patrol plane spotted a Chinese hospital ship, two Chinese coast guard ships and 29 suspected militia ships anchored in the waters off Subi, the Philippine coast guard said.
Subi is one of seven disputed and mostly submerged reefs which China turned more than a decade ago into what are now island bases in the Spratlys, the most hotly disputed region of the South China Sea. The artificial islands are protected by a missile system and three of them have military-grade runways, according to US and Philippine security officials.
Aside from Subi, the Philippine patrol plane flew near six other disputed islands, reefs and atolls, including Sabina, an uninhabited disputed shoal, where it monitored a Chinese navy ship. “This vessel repeatedly issued radio challenges against the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources aircraft while it was flying well within Philippine sovereign rights,” the Philippine coast guard said.
“All safe and mission accomplished,” Jay Tarriela of the Philippine coast guard said of Saturday’s surveillance flight.
The United States has no territorial claims in the sea passage but has patrolled the waters for decades and repeatedly warned it’s obligated to defend the Philippines, its oldest treaty ally in Asia, if Filipino forces come under an armed attack, including in the South China Sea.
Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan have also been involved in the long-seething disputes in the resource-rich waters.
