Looting or agreement? Zelensky offers Ukrainian mines to Trump.
According to Reuters, two sources familiar with the matter said that Washington and Kyiv have reached an agreement on the terms of a draft agreement on Ukraine’s rare mineral resources; this agreement is part of the so-called deal that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made with the dream of gaining the support of his American counterpart Donald Trump and continuing to help Ukraine!
Guarantee without guarantee!
According to one of these sources, who is familiar with the terms of the draft agreement, in this document, the United States did not provide any security guarantees or guarantees for the continuation of arms shipments to Ukraine and only limited itself to the statement that Washington wants “a free, independent and secure Ukraine”!
Another source added that negotiations related to the future arms shipments are still ongoing between Washington and Kyiv. Trump said at a press conference with reporters at the White House that Zelensky wants to go to Washington on Friday of this week and sign this “very big contract”. This is despite Trump and Zelensky having sparred fiercely over the past week!
The US president, who described the agreement as a form of repayment for billions of dollars spent by the US in Kyiv, has claimed that if a ceasefire agreement is reached in Ukraine, some kind of peacekeeping force will be needed in the country.
Some European countries have expressed interest in sending peacekeepers to Ukraine. Trump said on Monday that Moscow agreed to this, but the next day, the Kremlin rejected it.
Trump’s blackmailing rhetoric and Zelensky’s humorous opposition
Trump last week called Zelensky an “unpopular dictator” who must either sign a peace agreement or lose his country. On the other hand, Zelensky said that the US president is living in a “disinformation bubble”!
The agreement will enable the US to access and somehow encroach on Ukraine’s mineral resources worth about $500 billion. Zelensky initially refused to sign the initial draft of the agreement. Kiyv claims that Washington’s aid to Ukraine, since the war began in February 2022, is less than the stated amount, at just $100 billion! However, Trump insists that the US has already given Ukraine $350 billion.
Panic in Brussels
The attacks by Trump and Zelensky come despite sources saying that officials from both countries have agreed to and recommended the deal. Trump’s push to impose a ceasefire on Ukraine and end the ongoing war in the country, along with his turn towards Moscow, has heightened European concerns that he is making sweeping concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin, undermining the security of Ukraine and Europe and changing the geopolitical landscape.
Ukrainian data shows that the country possesses 22 of the 34 minerals that the European Union considers vital. These reserves include industrial and construction minerals, ferrous alloys, precious non-ferrous metals, and some rare earth elements. Ukraine’s graphite reserves, a key ingredient in the production of electric vehicle batteries and nuclear reactors, account for 20 percent of the world’s total reserves.