US president armed with money-making opportunities to encourage Russia to end Ukrainian war
Donald Trump is preparing to offer Vladimir Putin access to rare earth minerals to incentivise him to end the war in Ukraine.
The US president will arrive at the much-anticipated meeting with his Russian counterpart on Friday armed with a number of money-making opportunities for Putin.
They will include opening up Alaska’s natural resources to Moscow and lifting some of the American sanctions on Russia’s aviation industry, The Telegraph can reveal.
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, is understood to be among administration figures briefing Mr Trump ahead of his sit-down with Putin in Anchorage. Mr Bessent is exploring the economic trade-offs the US can make with Russia in order to expedite a ceasefire agreement.
Proposals include giving Putin access to the rare earth minerals in the Ukrainian territories currently occupied by Russia.
Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukraine president, said Mr Trump supports security guarantees for Ukraine.
The two leaders attended a virtual summit along with other European leaders on Wednesday.
“There should be security guarantees,” Mr Zelensky said at a press conference alongside Friedrich Merz, the German chancellor. “President Trump said that he supports this and America’s readiness to take part.”
Sir Keir Starmer said his so-called “coalition of the willing” was ready to implement a ceasefire plan as soon as a peace deal is agreed.
The plans “are now ready in a form that can be used if we get to that ceasefire”, the Prime Minister said, adding that “real progress” on security guarantees for Ukraine had been made.
European leaders, including French president Emmanuel Macron, said the calls with the US president were “positive”.
Putin is “bluffing” when he says “he does not care about the sanctions and that they’re not working”, Mr Zelensky added.
Ukraine is thought to hold 10 per cent of the world’s reserves of lithium, used in the production of batteries.
Two of its largest lithium deposits are in areas held by Russia, and Putin has staked his claim to the valuable minerals found in the regions his forces occupy.
“There are a range of incentives, in which a potential mineral/rare earth deal could be one,” a source with knowledge of the proposals told The Telegraph.
In May, the US signed a rare earth mineral deal with Kyiv, allowing it to exploit Ukraine’s ample natural resources. Washington will need to establish new mining operations, which could be accelerated by Russian co-operation.
The president’s America First policy has seen him strike several mineral deals since his return to the Oval Office, most notably with Ukraine and Kazakhstan.
After Olzhas Bektenov, the Kazakhstani prime minister, visited the White House, the State Department said it was “looking forward to working with Kazakhstan to deepen economic ties in… critical minerals sectors”.
Other incentives include lifting export bans on parts and equipment needed to service Russian planes, swathes of which have fallen into disrepair.
Western countries have restricted Moscow’s access to crucial spare components and other equipment since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022, forcing airlines and the military to cannibalise old aircraft for replacement parts.
Nearly 30 per cent of Russia’s western-made planes, cut off from maintenance, could be grounded within the next five years, Sergei Chemezov, the head of Rostec, Russia’s state-owned defence conglomerate, suggested this year.
Removing sanctions on Russian aircraft
Lifting sanctions on Russian aircraft could prove lucrative for American manufacturer Boeing.
With a fleet of more than 700 planes dominated by Airbus and Boeing, Russian airlines could return to the American suppliers for critical parts and maintenance.
Recent major incidents highlight an urgent need to prevent the fleet degrading. In late July, a Soviet-era Antonov An-24, built in 1976, crashed in the country’s far east, killing all 48 people on board.
Days later, flag carrier Aeroflot grounded dozens of flights following a crippling cyber attack.
Mr Trump is also considering offering Russia opportunities to tap into the valuable natural resources in the strait which separates it from the US.
Alaska, which is separated from Russia by by just three miles of the Bering Strait, is estimated to hold significant undiscovered oil and gas reserves, including 13 per cent of the world’s oil.
Developing Russia’s presence in the strait would bolster Putin’s strategic interests in the arctic region, which accounted for 80 per cent of Russia’s gas production in 2022.
British government sources told The Telegraph that such incentives could be acceptable to Europe, as long as Putin was not seen to be rewarded for the invasion.
“The sense is that it has to be presented to align with public opinion around this, it cannot be seen as a reward for Putin,” a source said.
Israel could be used as model to end war
Israel’s occupation of the West Bank could be used as a model for ending the war in Ukraine.
Russia would have military and economic control of occupied Ukraine under its own governing body, similar to Israel’s de facto rule of Palestinian territory.
The idea was raised in discussions between Steve Witkoff, Mr Trump’s special envoy and his Russian counterparts, according to The Times.
The White House is tempering expectations ahead of the summit on Friday, portraying it as a “listening exercise” for the president.
“This is really a feel-out meeting, a little bit,” Mr Trump told reporters on Monday, predicting he would know “probably in the first two minutes” if Putin was serious about peace.
European diplomats say there has been no notable change in Putin’s overall war aim, which is to topple Mr Zelensky’s government and replace it with a Moscow-friendly proxy.
The Russian president’s aides described the tet-a-tet primarily as a discussion on “Russian-American relations”, hinting at boosting trade cooperation.
A White House official said: “We do not comment on deliberative conversations that may or may not be happening.