Geopolitics is an approach to politics that stresses the features imposed on foreign policy by geographical location, environment, and natural resources. Geopolitics as a discipline contributes to the emphasis on continuity in contemporary political realism. The focal idea of geopolitics is that those who control the Eurasian landmass (Heartland) dominate global politics.

Ukraine has always been a significant part of Heartland. Therefore, many great powers have been fighting to impose their control over the territory of contemporary Ukraine (or part of it) from the Middle Ages up to today (for instance, Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Sweden, Vikings, Ottoman Empire). Nevertheless, Ukraine up to 1923 (the creation of the USSR) was just a geographical notion but not a political-administrative subject.  

The pre-2014 Ukraine was a country covering a huge territory of East Europe from the Carpathian Mountain in the west to the Donets River in the east and bounded by the Black Sea in the south. The neighbours were and still are Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Belarus, Russia, Moldova, and Romania. After the dissolution of the USSR after Cold War 1.0, an independent (Greater) Ukraine took necessary measures to reduce its economic dependence on Russia as well as on other ex-Soviet republics.

These included an agreement to import oil from Iran instead of Russia. However, the exploitation of natural /mineral resources has been neglected while heavy industry, including iron and steel production, machinery, and transport production followed by aircraft, chemicals, and consumer goods, became an industrial priority.

In essence, the food and textile industries are very important while grain is of crucial agricultural and export importance in the Ukrainian economy. However, Ukrainian agriculture was damaged by the 1986 nuclear catastrophe at Chornobyl as large cultivating areas were contaminated.      

Regarding politics, any Russophobic political regime in Kiev will continue to enjoy the US’ financial, political, and military support no matter the results of the US presidential elections this year in November. The question can be only of intensity as the political administration of the US is overwhelmingly controlled by the Deep State; so also American foreign policy (especially regarding Israel) no matter from which party the President is from or which party has the majority in Congress.

Such a position about Russia and Ukraine can be explained by the need for the US to support Ukraine for any price in the long term for clear geopolitical reasons. The Polish-American Russophobe Zbigniew Brzezinski wrote that without the territory of (Soviet) Ukraine, any form of Russia simply could not be an empire or, if Ukraine became subordinated to Russian influence or was annexed by Moscow, Russia would once again become an empire.

Another reason for America’s Russophobic policy in Ukraine is global, as Washington wants to fight any newly emerged (or potential) new world order in international relations led by Russia and /or China (around the framework of the BRICS+ countries). In order words, for American policymakers, any division of interest zones from the global perspective will harm America’s dominant position (post-Cold War 1.0) in international politics and economy as it would reduce the global market for American products and financial investments.

Thus geopolitical, economic, and financial interests are driving American policy in Ukraine to arm and train Ukrainian military and paramilitary troops to win the war against Russia (which, according to many authors, a putschist pro-Western regime in Kiev started in 2014 during and after the Euro-Maidan Revolution). Officially, the US Army is not involved in the conflict but Ukrainian soldiers are fighting for different interests and benefits of the American administration and companies.

Washington is waging a proxy war against Russia on the territory of (Soviet) Ukraine but not because the Russian Special Military Operation (since end-February 2022) threatens American national security. In fact, the US directly threatens the security of the Russian Federation, Russian culture, and ethnic Russians in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine (including Crimea).

For the American administration, the return of Ukraine within the framework of Russian influence would mean the beginning of the displacement of the US and its Western partners (the Collective West) from the biggest portion of Eurasia, and probably from many countries of the Global South (predominantly Africa). In this context, the Ukrainian military and paramilitary detachments are fighting for the continuation of the post-Cold War 1.0 hegemonic position of the US in global politics.

Many experts in international relations connect US support for Ukraine against Russia to the very specific economic interests of different Western international, multinational, and financial companies. Ukraine’s economy after 2014 was put into the hands of Western companies and that is why the US-led Collective West is not ready to peacefully hand over certain territories to Russia which historically belonged to Russia, to be settled by Russia’s majority population.

Nearly half of all arable land in Ukraine was sold to Western companies before 2022. Western sources openly claim that the conflict in Ukraine is a battle for very rich natural /mineral resources that this East European country possesses but a huge part is already under Russian control (Donbas region, for example).

The question is: How are natural resources (probably crucially?) important in the current war between NATO and Russia on the soil of (Soviet) Ukraine? The very existence of a client (East European) political regime depends on the support it receives from foreign (Western) powers. Since 2014, Ukrainian officials invoked the argument of significant reserves of rare minerals to secure the constant support of Western bosses even officially claiming that around five per cent of all the global reserves of critical raw materials are located in (pre-2014) Ukraine.

They claim that around 500,000 tons of lithium reserves are located in the Donbas region. Ukraine is one of the top 10 producers of titanium, iron, kaolin, manganese, zirconium, and graphite. According to Western sources, (pre-2014) Ukraine has about 20,000 deposits of 116 different minerals, of which only 3,055 deposits were active before 2022. Hence, if Western companies want to exploit such natural resources their governments must support the Kiev regime in the war against the Russian minority in East Ukraine and Russia herself.

According to some estimations, the territory of Ukraine before 2014 (Soviet territory) possesses circa up to 20% of the world’s reserves of all titanium ores. Titanium ore is necessary for the aerospace, medical, automotive, and shipbuilding industries. Besides having at least 500,000 discovered reserves of lithium needed for the production of car batteries, Ukraine is among the top five global producers of gallium, necessary for producing semiconductors. The territory of pre-2014 Ukraine had large reserves of beryllium, used for the production of atomic energy, aerospace, military, and electronics industries.

Additionally, Ukraine has significant reserves of zirconium and apatite, essential for the production of atomic energy. Ukraine ranks third in the world in terms of zirconium oxide reserves, just behind South Africa and Australia, and also had around 20% of the world’s graphite reserves. Ukraine is rich in non-ferrous metals: copper (fourth place in Europe), lead (fifth place), zinc (sixth place) and silver (ninth place). Finally, Ukraine has significant reserves of nickel and cobalt as well.

Ukrainian natural resources are important to the Collective West which is supporting and financing the Ukrainian-NATO war against Russians and Russia from 2014 onwards. Currently, China controls up to 90% of the world’s total production of rare earth minerals, from extraction to processing, and the EU imports 40% of all critical minerals from China. Taking control of Ukraine’s rare natural /mineral reserves can help Western economies gain greater independence from both China and Russia in the field of energy.

Out of all these natural /mineral resources, the US is most interested in titanium. The largest deposits of titanium ore in Ukraine are still under the control of the Kiev regime. The US imports around 90% of its titanium needs for the aerospace industry. The American Boeing secured 30% of its need for titanium from Russia (in 2021), but after February 2022 from Africa and Asia. During Russia’s SMO, some important mineral deposits in East Ukraine came under Moscow’s control.

The Donbas region is of prime importance regarding Ukrainian mineral and other natural resources, such as huge coal reserves. Currently, Russia controls 80% of Ukraine’s coal production. The Zaporizhzhia area annexed to Russia has one of the largest iron mines in former (Soviet territory). The Sea of Azov has significant oil and gas reserves. Both Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk areas possess two of the three largest lithium deposits in former Ukraine, which have not been exploited so far.

Russia would be among the top global producers of lithium having control of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia areas and their lithium reserves. Many Western experts have linked the future of Europe’s energy question with Ukraine’s re-capture of Donbas which possesses some of the largest lithium (and other) deposits in Europe.

The case of Ukraine reveals that the exploitation of rare metals is a geopolitical enterprise, driven by the Collective West’s fear of losing global economic-political dominance. Hence, to exploit these critical natural /mineral resources, the Collective West is ready to fight Russia till the last Ukrainian (mobilized by force) soldier.