France said that it’s in discussions with Ukraine to access its mineral wealth, including for military use. "We are discussing this question for France's needs," French defence minister Sebastien Lecornu told Franceinfo broadcaster.
The comments come as President Volodymyr Zelensky heads to Washington to finalise with Donald Trump a deal on US access to Ukraine's minerals.
Lecornu said the French-Ukraine talks started in October and were led by both countries' defence ministries. However, he said that, unlike Trump, France was not seeking any payback for its military aid given to Ukraine in the form of minerals. France needed to "diversify" its sources for such commodities, he said, without identifying the minerals Paris hoped to obtain from Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Kremlin has ruled out any negotiation over the status of five Ukrainian regions it claims to have annexed amid the current war. Moscow says four regions - Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Luhansk - are now part of Russia despite not fully controlling four of them. Ukraine and many Western countries reject Russia's claims as illegal.
#ukraine #france #trumpnews #mineralsdeal #rareearths #zelensky #macron #paris #emmanuelmacron #donaldtrump #putin
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0:00 INTRODUCTION
2:44 KREMLIN SAYS ANNEXED UKRAINIAN TERRITORY IS 'NON-NEGOTIABLE'
4:08 ‘NO ONE EXPECTS QUICK SOLUTIONS’
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