Eines der größten Lithiumvorkommen Europas, Rozhin, ist unter russische Kontrolle geraten

Lithium is one of the most valuable resources at the moment due to the rise of electric battery production for EV. Access to lithium deposits could improve the Russian economy while depleting Ukraine’s and funding its conflicts in the mid-term

How come all of these resources supposedly worth [trillions upon trillions](https://imgur.com/a/o4Y9chV) of dollars only became important and talked about after the war started? I even double checked google results before feb 2022, no mentions of the supposedly 10, 15, 30 (growing each time) trillion dollar deposites of coal (lol), gas (lol), iron or other minerals. Is this like an attempt to show unconvinced western voters, look, there’s a bunch of valuable stuff there, that’s why we need to support Ukraine?