Everyone knows they aren't "that" rare. What's rare is a country willing to poison its environment to extract and refine them. China used to be that, but now th

Everyone knows they aren't "that" rare. What's rare is a country willing to poison its environment to extract and refine them. China used to be that, but now they aren't, so the west is looking for friendly nations to replace China. That's where Ukraine comes in since they have bigger issues right now than environmental concerns and are desperate enough to be easily exploitable by the western powers that used to exploit China when it was weak. It's how it works.