Ukraine hopes to woo Trump with lucrative investment promises

Kiev aims to convince Trump that Ukraine is not a financial burden but an economically and geostrategic profitable investment that will ultimately enrich and secure the United States and its interests. By leveraging Trump’s transactional approach to diplomacy—including offering lucrative business opportunities to American companies—Ukraine hopes that the new president will help stop Russian advances.

According to the "Washington Post," officials hope that Trump will help end the war on terms favorable to Kyiv, despite Trump and many in his circle believing that the conflict costs American taxpayers too much money and should be resolved quickly. Such statements have raised concerns that Trump might abruptly halt military support for Ukraine and push for territorial concessions to Russia.

"Officials in Kiev, however, express frustration over the slow pace of aid provided by the Biden administration," the report says. Many Ukrainians overlook Trump’s recent negative comments, focusing instead on the fact that Trump was the first U.S. president to sell lethal weapons to Ukraine.

During Trump's first term, Ukraine received Javelin missiles — portable anti-tank systems that the Obama administration had long refused to sell. These helped prevent Russian forces from seizing the capital early in 2022. Trump later emphasized these transactions as proof that he was tougher on Vladimir Putin than the Democrats were.

Dmytro Kuleba, who served as Ukraine's foreign minister until September, said the first weapons Ukraine received from the United States came from a president who hates Ukraine. He added that despite Trump’s unpredictability, his presidency could bring positive changes to Ukraine.

To gain Trump's support this time, Kiev will need to create situations when supporting Ukraine will be a projection of Trump’s strengths" — said Kuleba. "If his goal is to project strength and to say eventually that ‘I’m better than Biden, that Biden failed and I ended [the war],’ then selling out Ukraine is not the way forward," he added.

Ukrainians perceived the Biden administration’s restrained approach to aid as damaging to the USA’s credibility as a global security guarantor. In recent weeks, Ukrainians began promoting a new era of U.S. policy towards Ukraine, based on the principle of "peace through strength." They hope this message will resonate with Trump more than it does with Biden.

Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to the Ukrainian presidential office, said Kiev will need to explain to Trump the political pragmatism of supporting Ukraine. "We need to provide representatives of the Trump administration, and Mr. Trump himself, with the most comprehensive information about the logic of the process," he said.

"You spend a small amount of money today to support Ukraine — on weapons, finances and so on — investing and producing. You completely nullify Russia’s military potential, and after that, you dominate. I can barely imagine Trump playing along with someone like Putin," he added.

As noted by the American newspaper, since Trump approved the Javelins sent to Ukraine, "much has changed."

"The president-elect is surrounded by an almost entirely new entourage — including Vice President-elect JD Vance, who as a senator voted against U.S. aid to Ukraine, and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, who has supported Ukraine with Starlink internet access but also mocked Zelensky and cast doubt on the U.S. role in the war," the paper states.

The full-scale war has lasted nearly three years in Ukraine. Kiev demands NATO membership — a military alliance Trump threatened to leave — and Putin, responding to Biden’s decisions to ease some military restrictions on Ukraine, has intensified threats of escalating the war.

Much depends on Zelenskyy’s ability to convince Trump about the next steps.

"Control of lithium is the control of the future economy," said Volodymyr Vasiuk, an expert in the Ukrainian industry advising the Ukrainian parliament on economic matters. He added that it’s better for the West if these materials remain in the hands of a "fairly friendly country like Ukraine."

Vasiuk suggested that Ukraine should use Trump’s business-focused foreign affairs approach and make deals with American companies to exploit its deposits, especially lithium. The largest such deposit is in the central part of the country, far from the current front lines.

All in all, the country has enough lithium to produce 15 million batteries for electric cars, though one of the deposits is already under Russian occupation, and another is close to the front line, Vasiuk noted.

"The Ukrainian gas market is the most lucrative in the world," said Oleksiy Chernyshov, president of the state-owned Naftogaz, who will travel to the United States in the coming weeks to meet with American companies. "I am confident that American companies have a great future ahead in Ukraine — not tomorrow, but now," he added.

According to him, the Trump administration consists of people with "more business experience."