Lavrov: US needs Ukrainian rare earth metals, including lithium

(Patria) - The United States needs Ukrainian rare earth metals, including lithium, and intends to take them as payment for military aid, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"It is no coincidence that US Senator Lindsey Graham directly said, he is not a diplomat and does not hide his thoughts, that the US needs to ensure that Russia suffers a defeat in Ukraine, because there are many rare metals in the country, including lithium," Lavrov told participants of the academic and educational program of the Fund for the Support of Public Diplomacy A. M. Gorchakov "Dialogue for the Future".

"He told Volodymyr Zelenskyy this when he visited him recently. He said that the US needs these riches. And he added that they will help Ukraine, and in return, they will take all of this as compensation."

Lavrov said that American companies have already bought most of the fertile land, TASS reported.

"They constantly talk about the 'Black Sea Initiative', about the need to feed Africa. First of all, the West exported more than 50% of grain to the European Union, not to Africa. American corporations profited from this grain. And they want to do the same with the remaining wealth of our neighbor," said Lavrov.