March 15, 2025 (EIRNS)—"Whitehall was none too pleased” about Trump’s deal over Ukrainian mineral resources, wrote British author and historian Mark Curtis, confirming earlier Ukrainian reports picked up by EIR.
In an article for [Declassified UK]Consortium News](https://www.declassifieduk.org/britain-wants-ukraines-minerals-too/) on March 11 (reprinted in Consortium News, Curtis wrote that “when U.K. officials signed a 100-year partnership with Ukraine in mid-January, they claimed to be Ukraine’s ‘preferred partner’ in developing the country’s ‘critical minerals strategy.’
“Yet within a month, Donald Trump had presented a proposal to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to access the country’s vast mineral resources as ‘compensation’ for U.S. support to Ukraine in the war against Russia.
“Whitehall was none too pleased about Washington muscling in.”
Although seemingly unaware of a secret deal attached to the 100-year treaty, Curtis noted that “When Foreign Secretary David Lammy met Zelenskyy in Kyiv last month he reportedly raised the issue of minerals, ‘a sign that Starmer’s government is still keen to get access to Ukraine’s riches,’ the iPaper reported.”
Although the U.S. and U.K. strategies over Ukraine are contentious on larger issues than mineral resources—i.e., over the issue of war or peace—the latter is an additional issue that can spoil the so-called “special relationship.”
Curtis reminds readers that “Lammy earlier said, in a speech last year: ‘Look around the world. Countries are scrambling to secure critical minerals, just as great powers once raced to control oil.’
“The U.K. foreign secretary was correct, but Britain itself is one of those powers, and Ukraine is one of the major countries U.K. officials—as well as the Trump administration—have their eyes on.”
Concluding: “Media narratives largely parrot the U.K. government’s interests in Ukraine being about standing up to aggression. But Whitehall has in the past few years stepped up its interest in accessing the world’s critical minerals, not least in Ukraine.”
Curtis suggests that one powerful interest behind the British claims on Ukraine is Rothschild. “Rothschilds, on whose board sits former U.K. National Security Adviser Lord Mark Sedwill, has no less than $53 billion invested in Ukraine.” Furthermore, “Last April, two prominent U.K. Parliamentarians met one of Ukraine’s largest mining investment companies in London to discuss ‘British-Ukrainian partnership in the field of critical minerals mining.’
“BGV Group, which has investments of $100 million in Ukrainian mining projects, held discussions with then Energy Minister Lord Martin Callanan, and Bob Seely, then a Conservative MP who sat on Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.”
British interest in Ukrainian mineral resources is part of a global strategy which has seen “the set up of a so-called Task & Finish group, analyzing the risks to U.K. industry, and including participants from BAE, Rio Tinto and ADS. The group highlights titanium, rare earth elements, cobalt and gallium as among the minerals with a supply risk to the U.K. military sector.”
British strategy to secure critical resources has included Iraq, South Africa and China, the author wrote.
