Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected a proposal for the US to take ownership of 50% of the rights to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals and other natural resources, Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The report said the offer was made when US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent visited Ukraine last week. While Zelensky rejected the initial offer, he has expressed openness to a rare earth deal with the US and is reportedly working to negotiate a better deal.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes said that by rejecting the US proposal, Zelensky was “being short-sighted about the excellent opportunity the Trump administration has presented to Ukraine.”
Zelensky’s main demand for a deal is for robust security guarantees from the US and Europe. A person familiar with the proposal delivered by Bessent told Financial Times it only referenced the US getting mineral access for past military assistance and didn’t include an offer for future US support.
NBC News reported that Trump administration officials have suggested an openness to deploying US troops to Ukraine to guard US-owned natural resources if there is a peace deal with Russia, although Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has ruled out the idea of a US deployment to the country.
Russia has also said it wouldn’t accept any presence of foreign troops, saying peacekeepers could only be deployed under a mandate from the UN Security Council.
President Trump has repeatedly called for a rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine, saying he needs to “secure” the money the US has poured into the proxy war. In a recent interview with Fox News, the president suggested he wanted $500 billion in natural resources from the country.
Over the weekend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) credited himself with convincing Trump to pursue Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. “The main thing for me is that Ukraine has value — literally has value,” Graham told POLITICO. “Trump now sees Ukraine differently … I said these people are sitting on a gold mine … I showed him a map, ‘look!’”
Back in 2019, Graham convinced Trump to keep US troops in Syria by showing the president a map of oil fields in US-occupied areas. Trump later said that he decided to stay in Syria to “secure the oil.”
Oh, the puppet is getting uppity. Get the popcorn ready, this is going to be great!
It could end in the funeral of a continent needing tissues instead of popcorn.
Between endless wars over every little thing and capitalism, humanity is doomed. Might just as well laugh when a green midget (literally and figuratively) is throwing tantrums. He is a comedian after all.
The Green Goblin is doomed as well. Let’s not forget that.
He will, however, have lots and lots of money to spend in his retirement in another country. A 3 year, 24/7 acting gig is worth something though?
That is, if he doesn’t die from accelerated lead poisoning
It will bother me to no end if he plays it smart and manages to escape to Italy (where he has properties) or Florida (my guess) and lives comfortably in retirement while leaving behind so much grief, pain, and devastation.
It will bother you, as it bothers me.
Rest assured, it will not bother him.
So once again Lindsey Graham wraps his lengthy self around the tree of tantalizing delights and waves a ripe apple before the all-too-human Trump.
All I hear out of him is bomb Iran, bomb Iran.
Zelensky is nothing, he has no authority to do anything. The USA and Russia will negotiate.
Reminds one of Hitler and Stalin deciding Poland's fate.
The strong do what they can. The weak do what they must. Ukraine's elite went with the US program to have Ukraine become an expendable munition in the US war against Russia. When you are a tool, you do what the master says.
”Send lawyers, tuna and money! The sh-t has hit the fan!…”
But i thought we made an offer he couldnt refuse? Doncha love gangstas?
President Trump has repeatedly called for a rare earth minerals deal with Ukraine, saying he needs to “secure” the money the US has poured into the proxy war. In a recent interview with Fox News, the president suggested he wanted $500 billion in natural resources from the country.
So, is that $500 billion to pay for Ukraine being used as fodder by the US? And is this included in the 50% of the rare earth minerals that the US wants for, I assume, future security guarantees and the continuation of providing Ukraine with weapons? And I wonder how this fits in with the Trump/Putin summit. If it's still being negotiated at that time, I can't see how it wouldn't affect what's talked about at that summit.
No one forced the USA to fund anything. Biden wanted the war and and no one stopped him from getting his war. The Ukrainians have paid a bitter price to serve the war mongers in the USA.
The USA search for conflicts on every continent, after losing they walk away from the ruins and have the audacity demanding to get paid, see Trump.
When you accumulate your wealth on frauds in your personal life… you automatically apply the same in your political life…!
I hear the Trump family is making money, more than Hunter Biden made.
Musk is doing the same by exploiting US government…!
He bought his way into Trump's heart.
… by contributing $250 million to his campaign….! Now Trump is paying him back and then some by taxpayers money…!
He did, that is how he is where he is. Corrupt and evil is what the Trump billionaires are and the MAGA people worship them because they don’t know better, cut-throat oligarchs control the media.
Ivanka and her husband, Jared the Undead, made$2 billion during the first Trump ring around the rosy.
The same is true for Musk, he knows how to rip the government off, the Biden’s are nothing compared to Trump and his partners, they are master rip-off artists.
Musk is evil, how did he make his money if not rob American subsidies paid for by US taxpayers. Why is he not vetted, including the government subsidies and conflicts of interest?
Yes, he knows all about corruption, that is how he became the richest man.
Who owns and controls the electronic and print media if not Musk, Zuckerberg, and Bezos? The nation’s government is being controlled by evil billionaires. Please wake up, they are evil money and power-hungry megalomaniac people, the same is true for the NATO and EU democracies with some exceptions like Victor Orban. Look at Germany and Scholz they sold their nation, they know what they are doing, they are corrupt and evil people. What about Netanyahu, and the Israeli government they are evil and corrupt people. Democracies have been turned into criminal cesspools.
https://thedecisionlab.com/biases/the-sunk-cost-fallacy
I'm surmising President Zelensky isn't familiar with this concept.
emember when Pvt Travis King fairly recently dashed over-the-border to North Korea, ultimately to be thrown out?* Gone-are-the-days of idelogical over valuement.* We like Ukraine, but not-that-much. Lets make a deal. We accept items of real value.
*do you understand: the analogy, the similarities?
Interesting that Trump wants his return on investment on the Empire’s failed experiment.
Wonder if he made a call to the leader of the Taliban and asked to recoup the costs of the 20 year war that, ummm, yielded absolutely nothing. It was an excellent revenue stream for the MIC though.
I thought that Trump, who is no stranger to many failed business ventures and loss consolidation, would have written this business venture off. Worth a try I guess.
😉
Don't forget compensations from Iraq, Libya, and Syria. And those pesky Viet Cong too!
It's not as if Zelensky has authority to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine anyway…
“In my imagination, iI’s not as if Zelensky has authority to negotiate on behalf of Ukraine anyway…”
Fixed, no charge.
Zelensky hasn't fully comprehended that the former Ukrainian lands east of the Dnieper River, including the Odesa and Mykolaiv Oblasts, will revert to Russia.
I suspect President Trump knows this, too, which might explain his demand to retrieve the rare earth minerals concessions from Kyiv.
On behalf of Larry Fink and a few billionaires, Trump would like to maintain Russia's distance from western Ukraine. History and recent hostilities might dictate otherwise.
The Russians are natural historians.
It will take many decades, maybe centuries for Europe to recover from the chaos the Americans created on the Continent. There will be nothing left of the EU and NATO, add the ME.
That was the plan since Stalingrad and Kursk, afterwards with the USSR steamrolling towards Berlin. The West HAD to open a new front on the West to prevent Stalin from taking it all.
“Going Strong since 1945!”
Europe can function again once they realize the scam of the EU and NATO is abandoned.
Better to have Russia as an ally and viable trading partner.
Makes sense from every perspective other than that of the USUK Empire. And the UK doesn’t even have a leg to stand on. It’s baffling.
The UK FEARED the German Bismarck Reich, that was the motivation to combine with Poland against Germany keeping Germany and Russia apart. The Kaiser and the Czar were cousins and liked each other, Katherine the Great was a German princess. The rising industrial Germany had to be stopped. The dying colonial UK and the rising industrial American power turned the regional European conflicts into WWI ending in a most brutal and humiliating unconditional surrender in Versailles and the destruction of the German middle class and the rise of Hitler. The UK/USA are not continental powers but they created much chaos on the continent.
Understood, but we know why WWI started and the Habsburg Empire didn’t need any help from the colonial islands for that.
What baffles me was Wilson’s seat of authority post-WWI, the revised world map, etc. Guess he felt Manifest Destiny should apply to Europe as well.
So much for a nation that had the Monroe Doctrine in place until 1914.
Narcissism and greed. Deadly combination.
The Monroe Doctrine is still alive and kicking. Look at the histrionics in Washington over Beijing's alleged influence in Latin America.
The UK was the proxy of the USA on the continent, that is why DE Gaulle blocked the UK membership in the continental EU. He was right when he said they are not really continental Europeans.
'So I said to Zelensky, I said, Vlad, I want to help you – but unless you sign on the dotted line, how can I hold Putin back? I mean, you know the Russians – they want what they want – they're just gonna keep eating you alive – your territory, your metals. And then what will you repay your debt with? Your kids? I said to him, To me, Vlad, not signing is short-sighted. Very short-sighted, Vlad. But I understand – You don't want my help? – ball's in your court. And I am confident you are gonna make the right choice.'
Couldn’t have written it better myself. Thanks!
Like the movie The Godfather. Made him an offer he couldn't refuse.
"Like…The Godfather. Made him an offer he couldn't refuse."
Yea. Still, as extortionate demands go? Nothing beats the cruelty and sickening sanctimony of Blinken pressuring Ukraine into the 'hard choice' of lowering its draft age – sending its 18-yr-old generation into "the meat grinder."
So Z refused? And the big powers – whose war it always was – make a deal? So younger-and-younger Ukrainian and Russian men stop killing and maiming each other?
I really don't like anecdote to make political points. But lemme tell you a little story. I'm in Poland now, and on the plane over, the Amsterdam leg, I sat next to this quiet, young woman. Ukrainian. Little English. She could say she saw family. In Chicago. Who'd been there for two years. So they got out. I said, So now you are going back. (Yea – obviously – was thinking out loud.) Then maybe impolitely, I asked how she felt – if she wanted peace or victory. These words she knew. She said, "Peace. And victory." And then there was this pause, not long, just like eight or nine heartbeats. And then, "Peace…Many. Dead. Boys."
Trump is pushing for rare earth elements because someone told him China may restrict its imports to US which is a huge setback for US economy…! He went after Canada first and then Greenland and faced a dam…! Today is Ukraine… Tomorrow could be Bolivia…! On and On…!
Among rare earths the U.S. receives, there is tungsten.
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/world-news/war/the-fate-of-europe-is-doomed/
"I have warned that our computer has projected that Ukraine will no longer exist. I have never seen our computer go flat-line in a country as it has in Ukraine. Zelensky is scheming to expand the war. He is a NeoNazi and hid his Jewish background until AFTER he became president.
Europe_vs_America
Because of the seriousness of Europe turning its back on the USA at the instigation of the Neocons and NATO, I will do a special report on this break of the alliance between the USA and Europe that the Neocons and NATO are festering. All I can say is I pray that Trump keeps our troops the hell out of Europe and lets them fend for themselves since they do not want peace. EXIT NATO now and stop ALL funding of Ukraine NOW! Zelensky is destroying not just Ukraine but is pushing Europe into self-destruction.
War or Reform
The EU is making its decision right now, which looks terrible. The European Union is collapsing, and to deflect the fiscal mismanagement and coming Sovereign Debt Crisis, it needs World War III. The EU is already scheming to start a war with Russia and reject any peace deal Trump strikes. Zelensky is telling Europe to F the USA, and Trump has no business interfering in Europe or Ukraine. I previously warned Zelensky is the equivalent of the anti-Christ here to destroy all of Europe and start World War III."
Not clear the US needs or even cares about Ukraine's "mineral wealth."
Think Z's predictable rejection is more important from a foreign policy pov:
'Refusing to pay your debt' becomes a justification for, 'So we'll negotiate a settlement separately, and we don't owe you any security after…
…or reconstruction aid. Prosthetic arms and legs? Take out a loan and build your own prosthetics industry. Can't have all your widows and orphans and limb-less vets standing around moping.'
But how will US weapons makers eke out a living without the post-Cold War expanding-NATO-member weapons market?
Not a prob – the Pentagon is unrolling astronomically expensive new weapons and iron-dome-type defense systems. Plenty o' contracts to go around, including with new Silicon Valley AI and drone technology ventures.
"Report Sounds Alarm Over Growing Role of Big Tech in US Military-Industrial Complex" (antiwar)
"A New Military-Industrial Complex Arises" (antiwar)