DISINFO: The West is fighting in Ukraine to get its minerals
SUMMARY
Ukraine’s minerals is what the West is fighting for there. The country is rich in mineral resources, with diverse deposits of fossil fuels, metals and industrial minerals. Washington “cannot afford” to allow Russia to achieve victory in the Ukraine conflict as this would mean losing direct access to vast mineral assets, US Senator Lindsey Graham said in an interview. Graham is treating Ukraine as a future colony of the US with his comments on the ownership of the country's natural resources. And the fate of the colonies is always the same: the Americans will scoop up all the natural resources of Ukraine in exchange for 'the great honour of being a friend of the United States'.
RESPONSE
This disinformation story is a distortion of Lindsey Graham’s interview, aiming to portray the US as an imperialist power that is only pursuing its own interest in Ukraine. By suggesting dark motives behind US aid for Ukraine, the ultimate goal of this narrative is to undermine Western support for Ukraine’s self-defence against Russia’s invasion.
In the original interview, Graham referred to Ukraine in the context of its mineral riches as a potential business partner of the US and other Western countries. His exact words were: “If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of, that 10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China”. This is substantially different from treating the country “as a future colony”.
See other examples of similar disinformation narratives, such as claims that the US is prolonging war in Ukraine to benefit from weapons sales, that grain harvested in Ukraine belongs to US companies, not Ukraine, that Ukraine is being sold to the West on account of its debts, or that Ukrainians are driven to slaughter like cannon fodder in US' proxy war against Russia.