Bessent to Visit Ukraine as Zelenskyy Pitches Territory Swap With Russia

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent testifies before the Senate Committee on Finance on Capitol Hill in Washington on Jan. 16, 2025. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will travel to Ukraine to meet with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and discuss the United States’ financial involvement in the country.

President Donald Trump announced on Feb. 11 that Bessent would meet Zelenskyy in Ukraine, suggesting that the United States had not seen adequate battlefield results for the amount of money it has spent in support of Kyiv in its war with Russia.

“This war must and will end soon—too much death and destruction,” Trump wrote on the Truth social media platform. “The U.S. has spent billions of dollars globally, with little to show.”

Trump has promised on the campaign trail to bring Kyiv and Moscow into cease-fire negotiations on day one of his presidency and has thus far struggled to hammer out an agreement supported by the warring parties.

Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has offered key concessions in order to bring the war to a close.

In November, Zelenskyy said that he was willing to enter cease-fire talks with Moscow on the condition that Ukraine’s Western allies and partners guarantee the security of the unoccupied part of Ukraine for the duration of negotiations.

And on Feb. 7, Zelenskyy announced he was willing to make a deal with Trump to sell the United States vast quantities of rare earth elements from Ukraine in exchange for continued security assistance.

That deal would give the United States access to roughly $500 billion worth of deposits of rare earths and critical minerals, Trump said on Tuesday.

Rare earth elements are a group of metals used in the creation of electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronic products. There are currently no viable substitutes, and demand is widely expected to grow given their limited availability throughout the world.

The United States, like most nations, is largely dependent on communist China for its own supply of rare earths, as China is the world’s largest supplier of many of those metals.

Ukraine’s vast natural deposits of many rare earths and other metals like titanium and lithium therefore offer a promising means for the United States to decrease its dependence on China while also offering Ukraine a lifeline in its defense against Russia.

Zelenskyy Pitches Territory Swap With Russia

Bessent’s proposed trip also comes as Ukraine seeks to mollify Trump and puts forward its biggest gesture yet that it is working toward a cease-fire.

Speaking to The Guardian this week, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine would seek to trade the Russian territory in Kursk that it occupies for some of its own occupied territories.

Ukrainian forces swiftly seized much of Kursk during a surprise offensive in August and have poured innumerable resources into holding onto the Russian territory in the hopes of having a bargaining chip when cease-fire negotiations finally do arrive.

Kyiv’s desire to hold on to the territory at any cost has been on full display in recent weeks, as it has prioritized defending its gains and launching a new offensive into the region even as Russian forces continue to slowly advance through southeast Ukraine.

Zelenskyy announced new assaults into Kursk during a Feb. 7 address, saying that a “significant number” of Russian troops were killed. According to a Russian Defense Ministry statement, the Ukrainian elements involved in the new offensive included armor, cavalry, airborne, infantry, and reserve units from Ukraine’s territorial defense force.

Kyiv’s gambit in Kursk comes as Russian forces make inroads toward the strategically vital city of Pokrovsk in southeastern Ukraine and the nearby town of Chasiv Yar.

Pokrovsk is a key logistical hub that furnishes supplies to much of the front lines, and Chasiv Yar sits atop a strategic hilltop. The fall of one or both of the cities could allow Russian forces to solidify their grip on Ukraine’s Donetsk region and possibly allow Moscow to launch a new major offensive into neighboring Dnipro in central Ukraine.

Bessent, who will be the first cabinet-level official in Trump’s administration to visit Ukraine, is likely to discuss such developments with Zelenskyy, as well as open negotiations for access to Ukraine’s rare earth elements.

Securing access to the rare earths will likely require many further meetings between U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

The announcement of Bessent’s trip to Ukraine also comes as several other U.S. officials travel to Europe to discuss the war with leadership from Kyiv and other European allies. They include Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and special envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.