The United States could provide ‘air cover’ to a peacekeeping force in Ukraine in return for access to rare earth and minerals, UK government sources believe, after the Trump administration dismissed Kyiv‘s request for troops to uphold a ceasefire.

The British government has been trying to lobby the United States to agree to send more air defence systems to Ukraine to help uphold any peace deal, as Donald Trump said he had begun talks with Vladimir Putin over the fate of Ukraine this week.

‘That’s their security guarantee,’ a senior government source told The Times, noting that the U.S. has not ruled out providing air cover. America was reportedly transferring Patriot air defence systems from storage in Israel to Ukraine last month.

Donald Trump has suggested that Ukraine could begin to compensate the United States for aid sent over the last three years with ‘like $500 billion worth of rare earth’. The deal was originally floated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy last year.

But questions remain around what such a deal could look like, and whether Kyiv could expect continued U.S. support in return for its precious elements. Amid European panic over peace talks between Trump and Putin, allies hope Ukrainian minerals could go some way to buying leverage for Ukraine.

In a devastating blow to NATO partners on Wednesday, Trump’s defence secretary said that Europe would have to provide the lion share of future aid to Kyiv, and ruled out sending American troops to help uphold a ceasefire if terms are agreed.

Britain and France were rumoured to be discussing sending troops to help keep the peace in Ukraine last month. But the government last week refused to ‘speculate about the future’, while reiterating support for Ukraine.

The U.S. Army test fires a Patriot missile (File photo)

Donald Trump says he has started talks with Putin to end the war in Ukraine

Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defence secretary, said on Wednesday that the United States would not deploy troops to Ukraine to uphold any peace deal with Russia – one of the key security guarantees requested by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

But treasury secretary Scott Bessent suggested that a mineral deal could be used as a ‘security shield’ for Ukraine after the war, saying that an increased ‘economic commitment’ to the country would invite ‘long-term’ American support.

Ukraine has some £12trn worth of natural resources, though many are found in the industrial heartlands in the east, currently occupied by Russia.

Mining analysts and economists say Ukraine currently has no commercially operational rare earth mines. The bulk of Ukraine’s coal deposits, which powered its steel industry before the war, are concentrated in the east and have been lost.

Many companies slowed or ceased operations at the start of the war, and restarting industry in a war-torn country will present a mammoth challenge for any companies willing to take the risk.

About 40% of Ukraine’s metal resources are now under Russian occupation, according to estimates by Ukrainian think-tanks We Build Ukraine and the National Institute of Strategic Studies, citing data up to the first half of 2024.

Since then, Russian troops have only continued to advance steadily in the eastern Donetsk region. In January, Ukraine closed its only coking coal mine outside the city of Pokrovsk, which Moscow’s forces are trying to capture.

Russia has occupied at least two Ukrainian lithium deposits during the war – one in Donetsk and another in the Zaporizhzhia region in the southeast. Kyiv still controls lithium deposits in the central Kyrovohrad region.

A Russian Air Force MiG-29S (File photo)

Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Governor of the Bryansk region Alexander Bogomaz via a video link from his residence outside Moscow, Russia, February 13

The destroyed facilities of Azovstal Iron and Steel Works at the start of the invasion, in Mariupol, Ukraine May 22, 2022

Most of Ukraine’s rare minerals are located in Luhansk Oblast, Donetsk Oblast and Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. Large swathes of Luhansk and Donetsk, collectively known as the Donbas, were seized in 2014 and remain under Russian control.

In October last year, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think tank assessed that Russian troops controlled 98.8 per cent of Luhansk. Around 60 per cent of Donetsk was assessed to be under Russian control in the same timeframe.

Russia’s advances to the south halt before Dnipropetrovsk, situated fortuitously around the Dnipro River. But the region continues to experience intense shelling.

Ukraine may see that a deal that ensures American investment in the country could go some way towards preventing another Russian invasion.

Kyiv has expressed in the past that any peace settlement that does not include hard military commitments – such as NATO membership or the deployment of peacekeeping troops – will just allow the Kremlin time to regroup and rearm for a fresh attack.

Although critics will fear that the U.S. and Russia are partitioning Ukraine to exploit its natural resources.

Zelenskyy said last month he would speak to the leaders of Britain and France to discuss a plan that would see troops from both countries stationed in Ukraine to held uphold and oversee a ceasefire agreement.

Sir Keir Starmer has vowed that the U.K. will play its ‘full part’ in helping support peace in Ukraine when peace terms are reached – although details remain unclear.

President Donald Trump meets with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Trump Tower, Sept. 27, 2024, in New York

A Ukrainian rescuer working to extinguish a fire at the site of a drone and missile attack in Kyiv on February 12

Ukrainians ride a tank in the Kharkiv region, eastern Ukraine, 10 February 2025, amid the ongoing Russian invasion

During his call with Trump, Putin said that to end the war in Ukraine, the ‘root causes’ of the conflict needed to be resolved.

This was an apparent reference to security demands that Moscow put to NATO and Washington in late 2021, weeks before launching the war.

Those demands envisaged sweeping changes to Europe’s security architecture, including the withdrawal of US and NATO forces from former Soviet countries and eastern bloc members, including the Baltic states, Romania and Bulgaria, which are all NATO and EU members.

Russia also demanded a commitment from NATO that it would not offer membership to any other ex-Soviet nations, including Ukraine, or conduct military operations on former USSR territory.

The Kremlin, since invading, has ruled out the idea of swapping territory in Russia controlled by Ukraine for Ukrainian territory controlled by its army.

Moscow says that any agreement to end the conflict must reflect the ‘new realities on the ground,’ referring to its annexation of four southern and eastern Ukrainian territories in 2022, as well as its 2014 seizure of Crimea.

It has also ruled out direct talks with Zelensky, claiming that his presidential term ended last year. Under martial law imposed after the invasion, Zelensky remains leader and is internationally recognised as such.

Read more