White House says U.S. walking away from minerals deal with Ukraine, seeks stake in nuclear plants

The White House said Wednesday that it is ready to withdraw from President Trump’s demand for a minerals deal with Ukraine, and suggested that the administration instead would have the U.S. acquire a stake in the country’s nuclear power plants as part of the negotiations to end the war with Russia.

“We have moved beyond the economic mineral deal,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters.

Ms. Leavitt’s comments followed a one-hour phone call between Mr. Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on proposals for a ceasefire and peace talks. She said that during the call, Mr. Trump suggested that the U.S. could “be very helpful” and running Ukrainian nuclear plants and has “electricity and utility expertise.”

She made the same argument that Mr. Trump had made for pursuing the minerals deal — that giving America an economic stake in a lucrative Ukrainian industry would be the best for vital resources “protection.”

A joint statement from Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz echoed Ms. Leavitt’s statements about how U.S. ownership of the nuclear plants would provide the best protection for Ukrainian infrastructure.

Mr. Trump had long pursued a minerals deal with Ukraine that would give American companies access to the war-ravaged country’s rare earths. However, it takes a lot of energy to extra and mine those minerals. Ukraine’s energy plants, including the largest nuclear plant in Europe, would provide that energy.

Ukraine’s nuclear power industry gave rise in 1986 to the worst nuclear accident in history when a reactor at Chernobyl went out of control, causing fatalities and spreading radiation over a wide swath of Europe. The International Atomic Energy Agency said much work has been done since then to improve the design safety of other such reactors to eliminate the “design deficiencies” that contributed to the Chernobyl accident.