As Kyiv and Washington work on a deal that will give the U.S. a share of Ukraine's mineral wealth, Ukrainians who live with seams of iron beneath their feet have a message for Donald Trump: don't take advantage of us, these resources are ours, Reuters reported.

The U.S. president has put pressure on Kyiv by threatening to stop the flow of military supplies to help it fight Russia's invasion unless the U.S. gets some payback for the billions of dollars the aid is costing.

But the deal is sensitive for Ukraine, which has a proud history of mining coal and iron ore and hopes to exploit seams of increasingly sought-after rare earths. Mineral revenues are a crucial pillar of the state budget.

In the city of Kryvyi Rih, on whose outskirts open-cast iron ore mines have gouged huge craters in the landscape, 71-year-old pensioner Oleksandr had little time for Trump: "You can't trust that ginger guy, he's not that kind of person," according to Reuters.