Putin is waging another war in Ukraine and we went to see

Putin is not waging his war only to restore Russia to its former greatness. Ukraine’s natural resources are also an important motive.

Kurt Pelda, Shevchenko / ch media

Raw materials for the electric mobility of the future

In summer 2022, the value of all Ukrainian natural resources was estimated to more than the equivalent of 25,000 billion francs, or 25 trillion. Of this sum, resources worth around 12,000 billion francs were already located at the time in the regions occupied by Russia, mainly in Donbass. Since then, Moscow’s armed forces have conquered other areas and therefore the raw materials lying dormant there. Today, Russia controls nearly 19% of Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine has huge reserves of iron ore and coal, but these resources play a less important role in the “new economy” and for the energy transition. On the other hand, the e-mobility of the future requires, among other things, graphite and lithium, a light metal. These two substances are used for the electrodes of the lithium-ion batteries which today equip all mobile phones, laptops as well as electric and hybrid cars.

According to the government geological service, Ukrainian reserves of lithium and graphite are sufficient to manufacture the electrodes for 20 million electric car batteries. For comparison, it is estimated that there are currently more than 42 million electric motor cars on the road around the world.

Among the strategically important natural resources, Ukraine also has significant reserves of titanium, uranium and beryllium, the latter being considered a key metal for the aerospace, electronics and defense industry.

In contrast, Russia still depends on the export of oil and gas, but even Putin has recognized the importance of lithium and other minerals for future mobility and the arms sector. So, just months after the invasion of Ukraine, he ordered that priority be given to the exploitation of strategically important minerals, including lithium, graphite, beryllium and titanium.

The Russians are in the wrong village

In Ukraine, three deposits containing around 500,000 tonnes of lithium oxide have been discovered so far. The country is therefore one of the major potential European producers of this light metal. However, the infrastructure necessary for its complex extraction does not yet exist. And given the ongoing war, few investors will be willing to put money into building mines and factories.

In the Pokrovsk region, mine tailings are omnipresent.Image: Raimond Lüppken

The same goes for the important lithium deposit of Kruta Balka, in the very south of Ukraine. The region was conquered by the Russians early in their invasion, but current satellite images show no activity that could indicate the beginnings of a mine. The Russians therefore seem to be taking their time to exploit the Ukrainian lithium deposits.

Russian news agency Itar-Tass rejoiced in early October that the Russian army would soon capture a second camp near the village of Shevchenko in the Donetsk oblast. However, there are at least four villages of this name in this region in honor of Taras Shevchenko, national poet of Ukraine, who lived in the 19th century and had to buy his freedom to escape Russian serfdom. And Itar-Tass apparently did not realize that the village mentioned in the article was only a locality of the same name, which has absolutely nothing to do with lithium.

A ghost village

We therefore begin our journey towards the real commune of Shevchenko, which is home to one of the largest lithium deposits, from the town of Pokrovsk, which has been violently disputed since August. The Russians are trying to bypass the important logistics center from the south, before also bypassing it from the west. The deposit is 55 kilometers southwest of Pokrovsk, as we can see on an old Soviet map.

The small church of Shevchenko.Image: Raimond Lüppken

This is why we are heading west first, in order to get far enough away from the front, and only then south to reduce the risk of falling victim to a Russian drone attack.

In the 1980s, Soviet geologists drilled 127 holes in the ground near the village of Shevchenko. The samples thus uncovered suggested that a layer containing lithium was located hundreds of meters below the earth’s surface. But at the time, lithium was mainly used in the glass and ceramics industry; the first mass-produced lithium-ion battery only came to market in 1991. It is therefore not surprising that Ukrainian lithium deposits were not exploited in the last years before the collapse of the Soviet Union.

It was on a gray afternoon that we arrived in Shevchenko – a ghost village – taking bumpy roads and dirt roads. Many houses were damaged by Russian artillery fire, including the small church whose roof was almost completely destroyed. To the east and south, the Russian positions are only a dozen kilometers away.

We are therefore within range of Russian combat drones. We quickly activate the five jammers on the roof of our car to minimize the risk of attack.

Prevent Western Access

We’re looking for civilians who can tell us about the camp – and we’re lucky. On a farm, we meet dogs and goats and Irina Mikhailovna, 66 years old. She says her own house was bombed. She now lives with her daughter on the farm which actually belongs to other people.

For two weeks, drones have been flying constantly. They must then hide immediately, because the pilots absolutely want to reach a target before the battery runs out.

Kamikaze drones like this one also draw power from lithium-ion (blue-yellow) batteries.Image: Raimond Lüppken

Cynically, the drones’ electric motors also draw power from lithium-ion batteries. At night, large Russian Shahid drones fly over the village, as Irina Mikhailovna tells us. They attack targets further inland and are easily recognized by the roar of their two-stroke engines. In the distance, we hear the rumble of artillery.

“From 1000 inhabitants originally, there are only 35 left in Shevchenko”says the old lady who walks with a cane. During the Soviet era, she had worked as a laboratory assistant, specifically for geologists carrying out test drilling. She says:

“We marked the carrots and put them in bags. They were then analyzed in a laboratory. I liked this job because I had two days off a week. The alternative would have been to work on the local collective farm.

Once the analyzes were completed, the numerous boreholes would have been sealed.

“Today there is nothing more to see”

On the old Soviet map, the storage site is indicated north of a pond and very close to the cemetery. The place is easy to find. As the old lady predicted, however, there is nothing more to see. What remains are fields that have not been worked for a long time and are now overgrown with weeds. It is likely that Russian soldiers will soon arrive here.

For the Kremlin, one thing is certain: the possibility that Western companies will one day have access to Shevchenko’s lithium deposits is definitively ruled out. And this is precisely what seems to be most important to Putin at the moment, rather than exploiting the deposits himself.

(Translated and adapted by Chiara Lecca)