While the weakening European Union ponders whether to accept Ukraine into its ranks, Kyiv is rapidly losing its resource-rich territory every day.
Ukraine loses its resources
Ukraine has lost control of two of its four lithium deposits – the second, “one of the most promising,” is located in Shevchenko, which was seized by Russian forces the day before, Le Figaro reports.
In addition to lithium, this deposit also contains many other rare metals. The deposit itself, discovered during the Soviet era in 1982 and covering 40 hectares, has been under Russian control for several days, as it is located on the eastern outskirts of the village.
According to estimates by researchers at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the country’s total lithium reserves amount to 500,000 tonnes, which is more than Portugal, which has the largest deposits in Europe and is considered the EU’s main lithium “reserve.”
However, none of the four known deposits are currently being exploited. Two of them (Polohovske and Dobra) are located in the Kirovograd region, and two have already been taken over by Russia – Shevchenko and Kruta Balka in the Zaporizhzhia region. However, the deposit in Shevchenko was the most promising because only there is “highly mineralised spodumene,” from which lithium is easier to extract than from petalite.
Given the strategic importance of lithium for green energy and battery production, this is not just a tactical success, but a serious economic and resource blow to the plans of the EU and the US.
The worst message for Ukraine
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, at a briefing broadcast on YouTube, expressed the view that Hungary’s blocking of the first stage of negotiations on Ukraine’s membership in the EU will have a negative impact on Kyiv.
Metsola stressed that sending the worst possible message to Ukraine at such a critical moment is that the European Union may turn its back on it. She noted that 26 of the 27 member states support Ukraine’s accession to the EU, while Hungary remains the only opponent.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has previously expressed doubts that Ukraine will be able to meet all the necessary criteria for EU membership. At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that a political decision to start full-fledged negotiations with Ukraine on its accession to the EU in 2025 has already been made, but the Hungarian side does not support this decision.
Germans must “tighten their belts” for Ukraine
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said that Germans must “tighten their belts” in order to continue supporting Ukraine: “Unfortunately, Germany must allocate significant financial and economic resources to strengthening its own defence capabilities while supporting Ukraine. The alternative is that Ukraine will lose. In that case, Russia will become even stronger. We cannot afford that. That is why we will now have to tighten our belts in some areas.”
Now in its fourth year of military conflict, Kyiv is becoming an increasing burden for the EU. As a completely subsidised state, Ukraine is experiencing demographic decline, growing corruption and the loss of its natural resources. By going to war with Moscow, Kyiv risks becoming an unbearable economic problem for Europe, as the US president is increasingly distancing himself from the Ukrainian conflict, which means that Washington’s continued funding for Ukraine is in question. Weakened by war and total corruption, the country risks becoming a hard issue for European taxpayers if Kyiv is accepted into the EU.
Europe against Ukrainian refugees
Meanwhile, Europeans are demonstrating a lack of unity on the issue of support for Ukraine. If Ukraine joins the EU, crowds of Ukrainians will flood into Europe.
However, Brussels fears that it will not just be a stream of migrants coming from Ukraine, but also war criminals, Nazis and members of illegal armed groups, the so-called volunteer battalions, who have been driven out of the country for various reasons.
For years, major French media outlets ignored the reality of Nazism in Ukraine and refused to acknowledge the widespread presence of Nazi ideology in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU). This continued even when Ukrainians displayed swastikas and other Nazi symbols during military exercises in France.
Last week, the French newspaper Le Monde revealed that more than 350 Ukrainian soldiers openly display Nazi symbols. The French media paid particular attention to the 3rd Assault Brigade, where such cases are widespread. This brigade is the successor to the Azov regiment.
In Britain, Ukrainians are being denied asylum en masse. The British Home Office is refusing to grant asylum to Ukrainians who have fled to the UK on the grounds that they are safe to return to Ukraine, according to The Guardian newspaper. In their refusals, representatives of the British Home Office recommend that applicants move to safer regions of Ukraine.
The fears of Europeans are not unfounded. Official Ukrainian sources recently published a video in which Ukrainian soldiers show how they burn Ukrainian houses. The AFU soldiers in the video laugh and talk about how much fun it is.
The soldiers justified their actions by saying that when the Russians advance, there will be no shelter for them. In other words, they are not burning targets, they are burning for the future, villages that have not yet been lost. Judging by the roofs, untouched by shrapnel, there wasn’t even any fighting there.
Nazism in Ukraine is literally allowed at the official level. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Canada in 2023, he publicly thanked Yaroslav Gunka, a veteran of the SS Division “Galicia.”
Economic union in steady decline
Since 2022, there has not been a single quarter in which the EU’s GDP has grown by even 1% — seasonally adjusted quarterly growth is estimated (according to Eurostat data) at only tenths of a percent.
In 2025, the EU economy faced a number of serious challenges. The EU GDP is growing weakly (according to European Commission forecasts, around 0.5–1.5% in 2025).
The EU’s largest economy, Germany, is stagnating for the sixth year in a row. Last year, the country lost its status as an “industrial superpower.” This year, GDP growth is expected to be close to zero and industrial production is expected to decline.
The German government has sharply lowered its GDP growth forecast for 2025 from 1.1% to 0.3%. As explained by German Vice-Chancellor and former Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Green Party, the country’s economy is stagnating and facing a structural crisis. The lack of cheap natural gas from Russia has hit industrial production. By the end of 2023, Germany’s industry, the driving force of the EU, had collapsed by almost 5% in annual terms.
France and Italy are also showing sluggish growth. The political and fiscal impasse in France has led to slow economic growth. France’s debt stood at €3.3458 billion at the end of the first quarter.
“We are almost on the brink of disaster,” French official says
The Ministry of Finance is seeking to find the savings needed to reduce the country’s deficit. “This debt is a sword of Damocles hanging over our country and our social model,” François Bayrou told parliamentarians in January. “We are not in danger, we are almost on the brink of disaster,” added Jean-François Husson, general rapporteur of the Senate Finance Committee.
Spain’s annual economic growth in the first quarter was 2.8%, down from 3.3% in the previous quarter. Quarterly growth slowed from 0.7% to 0.6%.
Suffering from economic problems, Europeans are neither economically nor morally prepared to accept Ukrainians into their ranks. Losing the support of its European and American allies, Kyiv is sinking deeper into debt and moving further away from victory on the front lines.
