White House says how much profit an agreement with Ukraine could bring

The United States hopes that its rare earth metals agreement with Ukraine will generate $20bn in profits, White House National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told NewsNation.

Not only will it help our national security, but it's going to get us critical minerals that are so necessary to make computers and everything else, and also, if those deposits are owned by the U.S., it's going to help protect them because you certainly don't want to attack something that belongs to the U.S.," Hassett said.

Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky are expected to sign the mineral agreement on 28 February, in Washington.

At the same time, Hassett suggested that the agreement with Ukraine is actually more valuable than $20 billion "given its importance to Americans."

Earlier, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmygal said the deal involves the creation of an investment fund for Ukraine's recovery, which will receive 50 per cent of the country's revenues from rents or mineral licences and dividends from infrastructure used to transport or extract resources. It applies not only to rare earth metals, but to other resources as well.

At the same time, the U.S. government supports Ukraine's efforts to obtain the security guarantees necessary to create a lasting peace.

What minerals in Ukraine are of interest to the U.S.?

• Rare Earth Elements. REEs include scandium, yttrium, lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, and lutetium.
• Titanium and zirconium
• Graphite
• Uranium
• Lithium
• Beryllium