Russia does not control 70% of Ukraine’s mineral resources. Propaganda distorted the Forbes magazine article, claiming control over the territories where, according to the website, a significant amount of Ukraine’s mineral resources with the highest total value are located.
Kremlin propaganda could not ignore US President Donald Trump’s statements about his interest in a deal with Ukraine to obtain rare earth metals and other resources in exchange for arms supplies. Against this backdrop, propagandists, citing Forbes, launched a false claim that Russia controls 70% of Ukraine’s mineral resources.
“The Russian Federation has gained control over 70% of Ukraine’s mineral resources: the largest deposits are located in the Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk regions, according to Forbes. Their value is estimated at $15 trillion,” Politicus wrote.
After this information went viral, StopFake decided to verify whether Forbes was really saying that Russia controls about 70% of Ukraine’s minerals. It turns out that this claim is false.
Prior to the spread of these fake reports, Forbes Ukraine published an article titled Precious Metals in Exchange for Weapons: Ukraine Can Offer Trump Minerals Worth Trillions of Dollars. What Could Stand in the Way? The article actually discussed where and in what quantities mineral resources are found in Ukraine. Citing a 2023 Forbes study, the journalists noted that Ukraine’s total mineral wealth is estimated at $14.8 trillion. Of that total, 70% of the estimated value is geographically “concentrated in just three regions – Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Luhansk.
Of these three regions, Russia has almost completely occupied only Luhansk. According to calculations by Vilne Radio, Donetsk is more than 55% occupied. Meanwhile, Dnipropetrovsk remains fully under Ukrainian control. On this basis, the claim that Russia controls 70% of Ukraine’s minerals-or even 70% of their total estimated value-is both illogical and mathematically incorrect. The propagandists have simply “assigned” all the mineral wealth of these three regions to Russian control, when this is not the case.
Previously, StopFake debunked claims that it was allegedly revealed which Ukrainian territories would be “‘traded'” during negotiations between Trump and Putin.
