Russia announces the conquest of a village near a rare mineral deposit. A desired and Trump and Putin resource
Russian soldiers. Photo source: Russian Defense Ministry Press Service / AP / Profimedia
The Russian troops took control of a village in eastern Ukraine near a Lithium deposit, after Ukrainian forces opposed a fierce resistance, a Russia official said on Thursday, reports Reuters, taken over by News.ro.
The village of Shevcenko is located in Donetk, one of the four Ukrainian regions-in addition to Crimea-which Moscow claimed as its own territory in non-recognized annexations and Western powers. The Russian Ministry of Defense has announced that Shevcenko was captured with another settlement, called Novoserhiivka.
However, Ukraine did not make any announcement about Shevcenko, but the mapping from open sources from Deep State, an authorized Ukrainian military blogging resource shows that the village is really under Russian control.
Soviet geologists who discovered Lithium deposit in 1982 suggested that it could be significant. It is at a depth that would allow commercial exploitation, and Russia's officials have suggested that it will be developed when the situation allows it.
A deposit with an area of 40 hectares
“The village of Shevcenko, which is on the border with the Dnipropetrovsk region, is another settlement that has a lithium deposit. This was one of the reasons why the Ukrainian armed forces sent a large number of soldiers to hold it,” said Igor Klimakovski, an official named by Russia in Donet.
The Ukrainian geological study states that the deposit is located on the eastern periphery of the Sevcenko settlement and covers an area of almost 40 hectares.
Part of the Russian press mistakenly stated in January that the Şevcenko deposit had already been captured, confusing this with the capture of another settlement with the same name elsewhere.
Lithium is a coveted global resource due to its use in a series of industries and technologies, from mobile phones to electric cars. Ukraine has reserves of about 500,000 tonnes, and Russia has a double amount, according to the US government estimates.
In the desire to attract the Trump administration on its side, Kiev has signed with the US an agreement that regulates the American exploitation of the Ukrainian rare minerals, when the war is over. Russia has proposed to Washington a similar joint exploitation agreement.
