Why Trump wants Ukraine’s minerals
FT News Briefing
Forhecz Topher
4.4 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The US and Russia have agreed to ‘lay the groundwork for future co-operation’ on ending the Ukraine war, and US president Donald Trump has his eyes on Ukrainian mineral deposits. Plus, developers of small modular nuclear reactors have raised at least $1.5bn in funding over the past year thanks to AI data centers.
Mentioned in this podcast:
US and Russia agree to ‘lay the groundwork’ for ending Ukraine war
The Ukrainian mineral riches in Donald Trump’s sights
Big Tech’s AI ambitions deliver funding boost to nuclear reactor race
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The FT News Briefing is produced by Fiona Symon, Sonja Hutson, Kasia Broussalian, Ethan Plotkin, Lulu Smyth, and Marc Filippino. Additional help from Breen Turner, Sam Giovinco, Peter Barber, Michael Lello, David da Silva and Gavin Kallmann. Our engineer is Joseph Salcedo. Topher Forhecz is the FT’s executive producer. The FT’s global head of audio is Cheryl Brumley. The show’s theme song is by Metaphor Music.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Good morning from the Financial Times. |
| 0:05.5 | Today is Wednesday, February 19th. |
| 0:07.8 | And this is your FT News briefing. |
| 0:10.2 | The U.S. and Russia held talks yesterday to end the war in Ukraine. |
| 0:14.6 | And Donald Trump has a plan for Ukraine's rare earth minerals. |
| 0:19.2 | So it's actually an offer for Trump to take everything and give very little, if anything, in return. |
| 0:27.1 | Plus, investors are having a big reaction to many nuclear reactors. |
| 0:33.5 | I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. |
| 0:44.9 | Thank you. I'm Mark Filipino, and here's the news you need to start your day. The U.S. and Russia are making moves to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine. |
| 0:49.9 | Senior officials from both countries met yesterday in Saudi Arabia. |
| 0:53.2 | It was their first time |
| 0:54.8 | meeting since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky |
| 1:00.5 | was not invited to the talks. The U.S. and Russia agreed to quickly normalize relations and, |
| 1:06.4 | quote, lay the groundwork for future cooperation on finding a peace deal. |
| 1:15.9 | Both sides said that a deal could involve some kind of economic or investment component. |
| 1:20.6 | Zelensky has said Kiev will reject any deal it didn't have a hand in. |
| 1:23.4 | European leaders are scrambling to respond. |
| 1:27.9 | French President Emmanuel Macron is planning an emergency meeting between them today. |
| 1:30.2 | It's the second so far this week. |
| 1:41.2 | Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is after Ukraine's rare and precious metals. |
| 1:45.2 | His administration is floating a plan that would give the U.S. a stake in the country's vast natural resources. But it raises some questions. My colleague Chris Miller |
| 1:51.9 | has been looking into this from Kiev. He joins me now. Hi, Chris. Hi, Mark. All right, so let's |
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