Ukraine's $500 billion rare earths scam: they don't exist, and we should know better

I don't think Trump is getting scammed. I think it's kayfabe. All the players know the mineral reserves aren't real or vastly overestimated. It's a false pretext to keep selling the war to the people. We're the ones getting scammed.

we'll let you keep your country if you let us rip it to shreds

Sounds fair /s

Kind of makes it seem like Russia and the US are working together to advance colonialization.

Sure they exist; rare earths exist everywhere; they’re just distributed thinly and so extracting them makes a real mess of the environment.

That’s why nobody wants to mine and refine them in their own country. Destroys the land and generates toxic chemical byproducts. This is what Ukraine would be agreeing to let the US do to it in exchange for… something.

I'm pretty sure this is a scam that Zelenskyy is running on Trump to trick him into making security guarantees and investments into Ukraine, and honestly? Respect the grift.

Invest more in materials science research and it wouldn't matter either way.

But I guess war is easier.