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"Ukraine is not a tenant": Russia controls its trillions of dollars of minerals - WP Ukraine's richest mineral deposits worth at least $12.4 trillion are now in the hands of Russia, writes The Washington Post. We are talking about 63% of all coal deposits, 11% of its oil, 20% of gas, 42% of metals and 33% of rare earth elements. Since February, the Russians have seized deposits of titanium, zirconium, lithium, strontium, uranium and gold. And that's not counting agricultural land. “Ukraine has found 117 of the 120 most widely used metals and minerals,” the American newspaper writes. “If the Kremlin succeeds in annexing the captured territory — and US officials believe it will try to do so in the coming months — then Kyiv will forever lose access to almost two-thirds of their fields." However, the fate of the Ukrainians is of little concern to the newspaper: it worries about Europe. It will now be harder for the continent to seek alternatives to imports from Russia and China. “Ukraine will not only lose most of its territory and resources, but will also be constantly vulnerable to a new onslaught of Russia,” WP quotes the opinion of Jacob Kierkegaard, a research fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. “No private company in their right mind will invest in the rest part of Ukraine if it turns into a frozen conflict." Ahead of Ukraine is the worst, analysts emphasize - "turning into the Baltic States, unable to support its industrial economy."