Analysis || “Agreement” proposed by the US is similar to a form of extortion at the most difficult time of Ukraine
Donald Trump is not the only president who recognizes a bad deal when he sees him.
The refusal of Volodymyr Zelensky in giving up almost half of his country’s rare land minerals in exchange for very few future guarantees is one of the many reasons why Trump was enraged with his Kiev counterpart.
The Ukrainian President made it clear that the exploitation of his country’s precious and energetic resources will be a way to rebuild his economy and cities after the end of the war. But the offer presented by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, despite being praised by the American officials as a generous staircase for Ukraine prosperity, is not, in fact, a “agreement.”
Still, he gives an idea of Trump’s view of foreign policy and his perception of war, after reversing, at least rhetorically, the support of the Biden administration to the invaded part and supporting the invader.
As with their plan to move all Gaza Palestinians so that the US can build a “riviera” from Balnear resorts, the president’s reasons seem to be more rooted in the extraction of the best potential economic return for the United States than in Equctive resolution of a murderous conflict that puts the world in danger. Trump is reflecting the skepticism of voters from their support base in relation to the tens of thousands of millions of dollars of military and financial aid that the Biden administration sent to Ukraine after it was illegally invaded by the forces of Russian President Vladimir Putin, three years ago. But Trump’s transactional approach represents a breakdown of foreign policy values followed by the United States for decades, including the principle that powerful nations should not invade the smallest, which Washington has consecrated in the United Nations.
His pressure on Ukraine, the victim in the conflict, is also a hard line effort to take advantage of a nation at his darker moment. While Putin “escaped” large pieces of Ukraine’s territory, Trump seeks to “dig” a large slice of his mineral wealth at a reduced price. The “agreement” is greatly similar to a form of extortion that Trump has already tried to make Zelensky-offering him military help as an incentive to announce an investigation into Joe Biden, which led to Trump’s first dismissal.
Still, the White House says Zelensky has no choice but to sign the pact to pay to American taxpayers the vital help of Kiev – although he has no guarantee that Washington will maintain support in the future.
“President Trump is obviously very frustrated at this time with President Zelensky,” said White House National Security Counselor Mike Waltz on Thursday. “The fact that he has not come to the negotiating table, not being willing to take this opportunity we offer you – I think it will eventually reach this point, and I hope it is very quickly.”
A surprising turnaround in the USA
The confrontation about the agreement on rare land minerals arises in the midst of a serious deterioration of US relations with Zelensky, driven by the adoption by Trump of the Russian propaganda on war, including false accusations that the Ukrainian leader began conflict And that is a dictator. The autocrat in this situation is Putin, who govern Russia 25 years ago, arrested his opponents, crushed the free press and performed fictional elections. And it was he who began the war.
The surprising US turnaround over the war deepened on Thursday, when the Trump administration discussed with G7 members about a joint statement that marks the third anniversary of the invasion, with US diplomats resisting a mention of “Russian aggression ”In the document. US diplomats resist mentioning the “Russian aggression” in the document. According to CNN, the other G7 members are afraid to give Russia one more victory after the United States supported Putin in some of their demands on eventual peace before this week’s conversations in Saudi Arabia.
While Trump says he is convinced that Putin wants to end the war and is serious about peace, the US and the allied information agencies are less optimistic. Three sources familiar with Western secret services said CNN’s Katie Bo Lillis and Natasha Bertrand, which Putin remains determined to join Ukraine in Russia or to guarantee a small and weak, Moscow -dependent state. “If you get a ceasefire, then the ceasefire is just time for Putin to rest, rear and go back to get the rest of what he wants,” said one of the sources. “We have not seen any indication that your ambitions have changed.”
The events of the last days, which have left the Ukrainians to feel betrayed, the alarmed US allies and even some indignant republican senators have renewed the debate about Trump’s reasons and the way they will influence the hypotheses of a fair peace agreement .
Will the US president be moved by personal animosity against Zelensky? Or contempt for a smaller and smaller nation, while seeking to reorient US foreign policy to promote a controlled spheres system in superpowered summits by strong men like him, Putin and Chinese president Xi Jinping?
Or is Trump, as he has often done, is choosing a hard line position simply to create trading space for himself? Can your adoption of many of Putin’s views and the fact that it strongly leaning against Zelensky aims to attract the Russian president to the table to a difficult trading session? Of course, Trump’s good relationship with Putin could put it, more than any other western leader, in a position to influence Russia’s conduct and potentially extract concessions.
A lasting peace that allows Ukraine to continue to exist as an independent and sovereign state that avoid rewarding Putin’s expansionism and saving millions of lives would be a huge legacy for Trump. The current Word of Words between Washington and Kiev does not exclude eventual serious negotiation – and will be quickly forgotten if it is possible to negotiate peace. However, Trump has not yet shown proof that he is preparing an intelligent plan to challenge Kremlin’s Bluff. Trump’s wild words often lead his critics to exaggerate, but words are important in this case – since the president is obscuring the basic facts about what caused war, which is a fundamental flaw in a leader that if You are positioning to lead peace negotiations.
The fact that Trump repeated many of Putin’s positions also renewed the debate about his fascination with the Russian leader, who, in his first term, saw him publicly repudiate the evaluations of his own information agencies that Russia intruded into the elections of 2016.
Trump’s latest favoritism of Putin attracted a public and emotional rebuke of an important republican senator who will face reelection in 2026. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, said most of the president’s most security instincts. but added: “Whoever believes that there is room for Vladimir Putin and the future of a stable world, it is better to go to Ukraine, It is better to go to Europe. ” It is good that they invest the time necessary to understand that this man is a cancer and the greatest threat to democracy in my lifetime. And it will be a cancer that will spread to the Southern China Sea, to Taiwan and will metastize all over the world. ”
Why didn’t Zelensky accept the “agreement”?
The proposal for the minerals agreement raises questions not only about their terms, but also about understanding the White House about political dynamics in Ukraine.
It is impossible for Zelensky or any other Ukrainian president to accept the “agreement” to deliver much of his country’s geological inheritance and a key to his future economic viability. If it had done so, its approval rate would probably fall close to the 4% level that Trump falsely claims to be, while requiring Zelensky to make an election, which was postponed due to martial law due to Russian attacks. Appreciating Zelensky’s political situation is crucial, because any peace will be a painful pill that the Ukrainian leader will have to convince his country to swallow, since it is almost certain that he will consecrate Russia’s rule over the stolen territory.
Zelensky said at the Munich security conference last weekend that he had not allowed one of his ministers to sign the first draft of the mineral agreement with the United States. “The agreement is not prepared to protect us or our interests,” he told reporters, noting that he did not see how the project gave Ukraine security guarantees.
But it is still possible that the first attempt according to the US may serve as the basis for a future agreement. Zelensky did not exclude, for example, the possibility of an agreement. But it seeks to use the influence of its country’s resources to obtain security guarantees that Ukraine needs to survive after any peace agreement.
The original agreement on the rare land minerals focused on the compensation of the United States throughout the previous one helps to Kiev and specified the natural resources that would be part of the agreement in more than a dozen pages, two sources familiar with the document told CNN. Zelensky said on Wednesday that the contract called for the US to have, or receive revenues from 50% of Ukraine rare land mining and other natural resource sectors. The sources said the document was asking for compensation not for future US assistance to Ukraine, but for the previous help.
Speaking to Fox News on Thursday morning, Waltz said it was time for Ukraine to stop Trump’s “talk bad” after all he and the United States did for the country. “It’s unacceptable. They need to lower the tone, look carefully and sign the deal, ”he said.
Although the language of Ukraine has been spicy in recent days – Zelensky accused the US president of inhabiting in a “space of misinformation” – most of the exacerbated rhetoric followed the false allegations and accusations of Trump himself.
In the United States and Europe, the furor caused by Trump’s turn against Ukraine is a political issue. But for Ukrainians it is a matter of life or death.
“Ukrainians feel the only adults left in the room,” Sasha Dovzhyk, director of the Institute of Documentation and Exchange, said, Paula Newton at CNN International. “What we currently have in the news are tantrums of someone we considered a world leader and Ukrainians are basically left to face the deconstruction of the world order.”
He added: “We are not new in this fight; The only increase is that we are currently facing aggression and misinformation on the other hand – which is the side of our great ally, the United States of America. ”
