Cynthia McKinney has visited the war-torn Donetsk Peoples Republic on a three-day press tour

The "vast majority" of Americans want to peacefully coexist with Russia, while a "parasite class" in the US wants to see the country torn apart for its resources and colonized, former US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney told TASS in an interview on Tuesday.

She made the statement during a three-day press visit to the Donetsk People's Republic. McKinney served six terms in the House of Representatives, leaving office in 2007.

"The vast majority of the people in the United States would love to see Russia and the United States living side by side, harmoniously, in any way that they can do so," she said.

McKinney said she came to Donbass to acknowledge that "there is much harm that is being done by my country, but it does not represent all of the people of my country."

Senior members of US President Donald Trump's administration have described the Ukraine conflict as a US-led proxy war against Russia - a point that Moscow itself has long argued.

Top Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said "this war is about money."

Ukraine is "the richest country in all of Europe for rare earth minerals" with around two to seven trillion dollars' worth of deposits, he stated in a Fox News interview last year.

The minerals became the focal point of a joint resource exploitation deal Trump signed with Ukraine in April.

A large part of what is considered in the West as Ukraine's mineral wealth is actually located in the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, both of which voted to join Russia in 2022.

Joint Russian-US rare-earth mineral projects are being discussed as part of the renewed diplomatic efforts between Moscow and Washington, Kremlin investment adviser Kirill Dmitriev said earlier this year. Trump has made numerous attempts to mediate the Ukraine conflict, initiating several rounds of talks with Russia and meeting President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last month.

Putin remains committed to negotiating a peaceful resolution to the conflict with Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday.

(RT.com)