On Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on the terms of the rare earth minerals deal that the Trump administration wants him to sign, insisting Ukraine was not in debt to the US.
President Trump has previously said that he wants a deal with Ukraine that would give the US access to about $500 billion in Ukrainian rare earth minerals and other natural resources.
“Let’s first clarify the $500 billion figure. I know that we had $100 billion [in US aid provided to Ukraine], and that’s a fact. But I’m not going to acknowledge $500 billion, regardless of what anyone says, with all due respect to our partners,” Zelensky told reporters at the “Ukraine Year 2025” forum.
The Ukrainian leader also said he was not prepared to pay back the $100 billion because President Biden and Congress agreed to provide the aid as grants, not loans that would be paid back.
“I made agreements with Biden and with the US Congress. I’m grateful to Congress. It was about grant support, and a grant is not a debt. We don’t have to repay a debt. So, it’s not about the figure, it’s about the fact that we do not recognize it as a debt,” Zelensky said.
The Ukrainian leader said he was willing to reach a new deal that would involve the US getting resources in exchange for continued US support. “If the condition today is that the United States — our strategic partners — says, ‘We’ll give you assistance, but you have to repay it with profit for the United States,’ that’s an agreement, not a grant. That’s a new agreement. I’m ready for such a dialogue, and I’m sure it will be positive,” he said.
According to media reports, the deal the US has offered Zelensky would have given the US 50% of the rights to Ukrainian rare earth minerals. Zelensky said on Sunday that he would not sign “something that 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to repay.”
Zelensky’s latest comments about the potential deal are sure to anger President Trump. US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has said Trump was “very frustrated” over Zelensky’s refusal to sign the deal his administration has offered. The lack of an agreement was one reason why Trump lashed out at Zelensky, calling him a “dictator” over the lack of elections in Ukraine.
In an apparent response to Trump’s comments, Zelensky said Sunday that he was willing to resign if it brought peace and NATO membership to Ukraine. “If [it guarantees] peace for Ukraine if you really need me to resign, I am ready. I can exchange it for NATO,” he said.
The Trump administration has already ruled out Ukrainian NATO membership as part of any future peace deal with Russia since the idea is a non-starter for negotiations with Moscow.
Zelboy is sure getting closer to the faith of previous dictators turning against US…!
True, it is particularly dangerous to his health that Zelenksy is actually right about that one. The money, whatever the ridiculous amount exactly was, was given to him. Approved by Congress, so perhaps not entirely legitimately or justly, completely legally.
But the avenue to walk this down could be that it was given to him with a very specific purpose, with the understanding of and certain expectations on how to spend it. The problem is then that this is not known. Which is a serious problem that therefore should be resolved by a transparent audit.
Ukraine, Nuclear Weapons, and Security Assurances at a Glance
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/ukraine-nuclear-weapons-and-security-assurances-glance
To solidify security commitments to Ukraine, the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom signed the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances on December 5, 1994. A political agreement in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Accords, the memorandum included security assurances against the threat or use of force against Ukraine’s territory or political independence. The countries promised to respect the sovereignty and existing borders of Ukraine. Parallel memorandums were signed for Belarus and Kazakhstan as well. In response, Ukraine officially acceded to the NPT as a non-nuclear weapon state on December 5, 1994. That move met the final condition for ratification of START, and on the same day, the five START states-parties exchanged instruments of ratification, bringing the treaty into force.
Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty – United States https://www.state.gov/nuclear-non-proliferation-treaty
The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), 1968 https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/npt
Speaking of security assurances:
“In accordance with UNSCR 984 and the statement of the Chinese Government on providing security assurances to Ukraine on 4 December 1994, China undertakes to unconditionally refrain from using or threaten to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine, as a non-nuclear-weapon State, and to provide corresponding security assurances to Ukraine in the event that Ukraine is subjected to aggression or threat of aggression using nuclear weapons.”
中国和乌克兰关于进一步深化战略伙伴关系的联合声明
https://www-gov-cn.translate.goog/jrzg/2013-12/05/content_2543057.htm?_x_tr_sl=zh-TW&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp Joint statement of China and Ukraine on further deepening the strategic partnership
https://www-mfa-gov-cn.translate.goog/web//gjhdq_676201/gj_676203/oz_678770/1206_679786/1207_679798/?_x_tr_sl=zh-TW&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp document
• The heads of state of China and Russia signed a joint statement, emphasizing the need to resolve the Ukrainian crisis through peace talks (2023-03-22)
• Joint Communiqué of the Ministerial Meeting of the Group of Friends of Peace on the Ukrainian Crisis (2024-09-28)
• China's Position on the Political Solution to the Ukrainian Crisis (2023-02-24)
• Joint Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Republic of China and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria (2022-03-20)
• Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and Ukraine on Further Deepening Strategic Partnership (2013-12-06)
• Joint Statement of the People's Republic of China and Ukraine on Comprehensively Raising the Level of China-Ukraine Friendly and Cooperative Relations (2010-09-02)
• China and Ukraine issue joint press release on Ukrainian Foreign Minister Zlenko's visit to China (2002-01-31)
• China and Ukraine issue joint press release on Ukrainian Foreign Minister Zlenko's visit to China (2002-01-31)
• Joint Statement of China and Ukraine (2001-07-21)
• Joint Communiqué on the Establishment of Diplomatic Relations between the People's Republic of China and Ukraine (2000-11-07)
https://www.mfa.gov.cn/eng/wjbzhd/202409/t20240929_11500459.html "Friends for Peace" Group on the Ukraine Crisis Set up in the United Nations
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3299113/critical-moment-china-calls-all-stakeholders-be-part-ukraine-peace-talks
He is correct.
We, and NATO, got Ukraine into this mess.
Wrong. One murderous dictator is responsible for this mess.
https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/498e35cca3239b616502c276498433a7d88a9cd761db6e1146c21025fc3126b8.jpg
So, NATO expansion and 30 years of provocations didn't happen? Just suddenly out of the blue, "Putin" invaded Ukraine? I can understand people thinking that war wasn't necessary, but to try to pretend that the US didn't start rubbing Russia's collective nose in dogshit since the end of the cold war is just being willfully ignorant. And the provocations weren't going to stop. The mission was accomplished. If not, the bait would have continued to be laid until Putin bit. So, the war was inevitable.
Trying to defend a murderous war criminal is rubbing Ukraine’s nose in dogshit, since Russia is the aggressor acting in violation of international law.
Seems everybody talks about international law, but nobody adheres to it when their economic interests are threatened by it. It's all about MONEY, MONEY and MONEY.
Ukraine adheres to international law, as do the majority of Western nations. But when it comes to economic interests and religious ideology, the U$A systematically ignores international law.
"I am driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did." — George W. Bush
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b1ac01c278b74f237b5a40c4b9cfb8cff47b7e75a09d3bbb5a18697a3aa13ef.jpg
Russia attacked Ukraine because the Ukraine Nazis wanted to exterminate the Russians in the designated territories, just as the US attacked Mexico as the “Anglos” in Texas were being persecuted by Mexico City. Both sides commit atrocities and break international laws. And, again, it’s all about money for the few at the expense of the majority. War is a racket as Gen. Smedley Butler wrote about. Here’s his essay on that subject: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.32000014248506&seq=1
The Wagner Group's second in command, Dmitry Utkin, was literally covered in Nazi tattoos.
The Wagner Group includes a contingent known as Rusich, which are described as a far-right extremist or neo-Nazi unit, and their logo features a Slavic swastika. They left neo-Nazi graffiti all over the battlefield in Ukraine and Syria.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5461a682addfb34a39f330614947c4caa07daee47b44d05954b27f0b3217dfe2.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/82785d23739c152ccb9ac7fb3fd58d6e6f368bed58704b9da6125f820a162b8e.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bd9889ca9555915365c9603a5d9f9b9bdc12caa219b0c52894412b95c8b6f81b.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/69fe6cacc877b863fc5225038919cde79e9ae33259bc33aa01c5e84b74e346b7.jpg
I saw no Nazi regalia here, but I did see it shown by the Ukraine Nazi faction. You know it’s true. Don’t flip out over any politician. One has to be an evil psychopath to get to the top of the putrid heap in a nation’s capitol. And, voting for the lesser evil is still voting for evil.
You may need to have your eyesight tested, and a psychiatric exam. One has to be an evil psychopath to defend murderous war criminals.
Utkin, the Nazi-tattooed commander who gave Wagner its name. https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230825-utkin-the-nazi-tattooed-commander-who-gave-wagner-its-name
The rise and fall of the Wagner Group https://www.diis.dk/en/research/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-wagner-group
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e89b667de5076501d572ed51dc62be3f5e99966b98deb1ecf9091ec514c839f8.jpg
Rusich Group. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusich_Group
Patch of the Rusich Group featuring the kolovrat, a variant of the swastika.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c09238b442970cb36ecceeb2ef0cf001e79b499495377234ba3a8ca7330e30d5.png
Neo-Nazism in Russia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-Nazism_in_Russia
So, you're right back to ignoring anything that happened in the previous 30 years. Got it.
Exactly! After decades of appeasement by Russia, they drew the line with Ukraine.
The ICC arrest warrants are not a strong argument. Their contents have been kept secret. It is suggested they are based on a report by Yale Human Rights Lab. But that report makes largely favorable general statements about ukrainian youth staying in Russia and provides no evidence of wrongdoing. It does not support the arrest warrants, on the contrary, it undermines them.
Weak argument. The ICC have ample verified evidence of Russia's war crimes.
More Than 700,000 Ukrainian Children Taken To Russia Since Full-Scale War Started, Official Says. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-children-taken-ukraine/32527298.html
Ukraine demands Russia return 'kidnapped' children. https://www.voanews.com/a/ukraine-demands-russia-return-kidnapped-children/7887512.html
Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children is an attempt to steal the country's future and has left the youngsters with deep psychological scars. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/ukrainian-children-abducted-by-russia-left-with-psychological-scars-campaigners-2024-06-15/
Child abductions in the Russo-Ukrainian War. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War
ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Sergei Kuzhugetovich Shoigu and Valery Vasilyevich Gerasimov. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-sergei-kuzhugetovich-shoigu-and
ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova. https://www.icc-cpi.int/news/situation-ukraine-icc-judges-issue-arrest-warrants-against-vladimir-vladimirovich-putin-and
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1a4c74f069d4216dcb97ab0b9fcb7c5ed9258a5f8dd67f54929df8b35a8382dd.jpg
Fun fact. Same atrocity fabrication.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/524da2fe2f56dbcfd53b9d7c6c81fed38870d3dc7d18af483e65d055ee5c408e.jpg
Not concerning abduction of children.
“Russian children's commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova has said that more than 700,000 Ukrainian children have been taken from Ukraine to Russia since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Lvova-Belova said in a report published on July 30 that the vast majority of those children came to Russia accompanied by parents and relatives.”
So the children were not ‘taken from Ukraine’. (Families may have been refugees. The largest number of refugees fled to Russia, according to Statista.)
"Russia denies it has forcibly transferred children."
As confirmed by the YHRL report.
"Russia's abduction of Ukrainian children (…)"
As contradicted by the YHRL report.
"Kyiv says"
That is not a reliable source.
Know your war propaganda .
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America are Washington propaganda organizations.
Russia has forcibly transferred almost 20 thousand Ukrainian children to areas under its control, assigned them Russian citizenship, forcibly adopted them into Russian families, and created obstacles for their reunification with their parents and homeland. The United Nations has stated that these deportations constitute war crimes. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for President of Russia Vladimir Putin (who has explicitly supported the forced adoptions, including by enacting legislation to facilitate them) and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova for their alleged involvement. According to international law, including the 1948 Genocide Convention, such acts constitute genocide if done with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a nation or ethnic group.
Ukrainian children have been abducted by the Russian state after their parents had been arrested by Russian occupation authorities or killed in the invasion, or after becoming separated from their parents in an active war zone. Children have also been abducted from Ukrainian state institutions in occupied areas, and through children's "summer camps" on Russian territory. The abducted children have been subject to Russification; raising children of war in a foreign nation and culture may constitute an act of genocide if intended to erase their national identity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_abductions_in_the_Russo-Ukrainian_War
Bullsh!t. you fell for fake news.
Bullshit. You fell for Kremlin propaganda.
Wake up.
Wake up, sheeple!
Nobody forced Ukraine to do anything. They are ultimately responsible for the choices they made.
Yeah, they got agency. And they sure got the money to follow through on any folly that sublimates from the cocaine addled haze residing in the Kiev Churchill's skull.
It's traditional for victors to demand reparations from the losers.
The US/UK/EU are on the losing side.
At the moment, both sides are losers — and even if there's an eventual technical winner, that winner probably won't really believe the prize was worth the cost.
Maybe Zelensky personally owes something to Americans but Ukraine owes to U.S. nothing. Trump said himself that Biden gave those money free. Kiev puppet regime was installed by Americans for the purpose of promoting American imperial interests. Ukraine paid a heavy price for it already and got nothing. Population decreased double, industry destroyed. And now Trump says that Ukraine owes $500 to U.S. It is a racket.
Ukraine should pay the $500. It's a bargain compared to the $11.5 trillion.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c0963aaaf412abbe557b6349d6cc01e62034b16bed4e983b8e3bb6d50278861e.png
Ukraine is paying a heavy price for giving up their nuclear weapons. Russia and the U.S. are acting in violation of international law .
1. USSR nuclear weapons were controlled by the USSR state. After its collapse it was to be decided what to do with them.
It is stated that ukrainian agencies were unable to independently operate the nuclear weapons, and unable to independently maintain them either.
2. Are you referring to the Budapest Memorandum?
If so, you repeat the standard disinformation that omits that the Budapest Memorandum was already breaking down before the start of the military operation on 24 feb 2022. Zelensky threatened to violate it.
That may be taken to be one of the aggressions which led to the russian armed forces’ military operation starting 24 feb 2022.
“The final trigger for war might have been President Zelensky’s defiant speech to the Munich Security Conference on 19 February 2022, in which he threatened Ukrainian re-acquisition of nuclear weapons. As Gordon Hahn has pointed out, there were no western protests at Zelensky’s threat to abrogate both the 1994 Budapest Memorandum on Ukraine’s nuclear status and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to which Ukraine was lso a signatory.”
Sources of above:
Geoffrey Roberts – ‘Now or never’: the immediate origins of Putin’s preventative war on Ukraine
New Kontinent ( http://NewKontinent.org ) 29 dec. 2022
https://newkontinent.org/now-or-never-the-immediate-origins-of-putins-preventative-war-on-ukraine/
29 Hahn, “The Complex and Unclear Roots of the Russo-NATO-Ukraine War”.
The quarterly magazine Kontinent was founded in Paris in 1974 to publish the works of authors subject to censorship in the USSR and the countries of the Communist bloc.
https://newkontinent.org/mission/
The face of a wanted war criminal
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/cbb1d6195bafe773f995c83e09303c11514f1527ceb147b7186a8f1461b96932.jpg
Russian war crimes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_war_crimes
War crimes in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_crimes_in_the_Russian_invasion_of_Ukraine
If we can agree on $500, we can probably raise that from the commenters here. I'll chip in $10.
Ukraine never had nuclear weapons, anymore than Montana or South Dakota has nuclear weapons.
Really? You never had a valid argument, anymore than Trump's claim that he's a "stable genius." You both live in denial of facts.
After the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Ukraine became the third largest nuclear power in the world and held about one third of the former Soviet nuclear weapons, delivery system, and significant knowledge of its design and production. Ukraine inherited about 130 UR-100N intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) with six warheads each, 46 RT-23 Molodets ICBMs with ten warheads apiece, as well as 33 heavy bombers, totaling approximately 1,700 nuclear warheads that remained on Ukrainian territory.
While all these weapons were located on Ukrainian territory, they were not under Ukraine's control. In 1994, Ukraine agreed to transfer these weapons to Russia for dismantlement and became a party to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, in exchange for economic compensation and assurances from Russia, the United States and United Kingdom to respect the Ukrainian independence and sovereignty in the existing borders. Years later, Russia, one of the parties to the agreement, invaded Ukraine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction
Agreed, the debt should be entirely the other way … and especially to Russia. But, in any event, it is all fanciful since Russia will have total control of the territory and thence the disposition of its assets.
And how’s that magically going to happen. Fourth year of the war and Russia still has neither secured Donetsk nor shown any sign that it’s likely to in the near term.
Well, then, I guess we all have to hope & pray for magic stopping Trump raping helpless Mother Ukraine …
But the EU is still insistent that Russia is determined to roll across Europe in a coming war, unless NATO, (i.e. US blood and money) keeps coming in to save it. BS is so pervasive it's been accepted as fact to so many people. Fear mongering works just about every time, doesn't it?
I suspect that many of the EU regimists ACTUALLY BELIEVE that if Putin regards himself as having "won" in Ukraine, he'll set his eyes on other expansions for Russia — probably at least the Baltics.
That fear may be wrong. It may even be completely irrational (Putin went for 20 years without showing wild expansionist tendencies). But I think that the fear is real.
The fear is in the minds of those who prosper from more war would cut into profits. All about money, isn’t it?
The US owes Ukraine NOTHING, neither does Russia. It was Ukraine which violated the 2 neutrality treaties.
Why Russia? It wasn't Russia who organized unconstitutional change of power in Kiev.
If Russia is guilty, I am okay to accept it. But this time Russia only defended herself and Russian people in Ukraine. I think, it was absolutely justified.
Yes, Biden gave Ukraine money for free. In what universe does that mean Ukraine owes us nothing? Yes, Trump properly wants compensation. If Ukraine wants no future support from us, that is fantastic. That is how deals work.
I recall some of the money congress allocated was considered a loan.
The racket was the USA deep state colluding with Ukraine leaders to make war. That has nothing to do with Trump.
Perhaps not indeed Z, and the US is not in debt to Ukraine for stopping Russia from rolling over Europe and then the world. Because Russia couldn't do that, and wouldn't try.
Zelensky is not getting NATO membership,
Period. But I understand his position. Joe Biden was a buffoon.
Zelensky said he is willing to resign in return for Ukraine's NATO membership. I understand that traitorous Trump would never resign after committing multiple crimes and blatant violations of the U.S. Constitution and international law.
Relations between the NATO military alliance and the Russian Federation were established in 1991 within the framework of the North Atlantic Cooperation Council.
In 1994, Russia joined the Partnership for Peace program, and on 27 May 1997, the NATO–Russia Founding Act (NRFA) was signed at the 1997 Paris NATO Summit in France, enabling the creation of the NATO–Russia Permanent Joint Council (NRPJC). Through the early part of 2010s NATO and Russia signed several additional agreements on cooperation.[1] The NRPJC was replaced in 2002 by the NATO-Russia Council (NRC), which was established in an effort to partner on security issues and joint projects together.
Despite efforts to structure forums that promote cooperation between Russia and NATO, relations as of 2024 have become severely strained over time due to post-Soviet conflicts and territory disputes involving Russia having broken out, many of which are still ongoing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russia%E2%80%93NATO_relations
Relations between Ukraine and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) started in 1991 following Ukraine's independence after the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Ukraine-NATO ties gradually strengthened during the 1990s and 2000s, and Ukraine aimed to eventually join the alliance. Although co-operating with NATO, Ukraine remained a neutral country. After it was attacked by Russia in 2014, Ukraine has increasingly sought NATO membership.
Ukraine joined NATO's Partnership for Peace in 1994 and the NATO-Ukraine Commission in 1997, then agreed the NATO-Ukraine Action Plan in 2002 and entered into NATO's Intensified Dialogue program in 2005.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine%E2%80%93NATO_relations
https://www.nato.int/cps/ra/natohq/topics_50090.htm Relations with Russia
https://www.nato.int/cps/su/natohq/official_texts_25468.htm Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation signed in Paris, France
https://www.nato-pa.int/content/russia
https://natolibguides.info/nato-russia
https://mid.ru/en/foreign_policy/news/1790809/ Press release on Russian draft documents on legal security guarantees from the United States and NATO
https://www.gmfus.org/news/nato-and-russia-after-invasion-ukraine
https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/issue-brief-a-nato-strategy-for-countering-russia/
https://www.chathamhouse.org/2021/05/myths-and-misconceptions-debate-russia/myth-03-russia-was-promised-nato-would-not-enlarge
https://www.bits.de/public/briefingpaper/bp97-1.htm The NATO-Russia "Founding Act": Stepping Stone or Stumbling Block for a European Security Architecture? https://www.mfa.gr/missionsabroad/images/stories/missions/pakistan/docs/Key_messages.pdf Key messages on Russian myths
Did NATO promise not to build infrastructure in the new Allies, or to station troops there? (The Founding Act can be read here) etc.
https://pism.pl/publications/consequences-of-the-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-for-the-1997-nato-russia-founding-act https://pism.pl/publications/How_Russian_Violations_of_the_1997_Founding_Act_Influence_NATORussia_Relations
https://www.zois-berlin.de/en/publications/zois-spotlight/archiv-2017/is-the-nato-russia-founding-act-still-relevant
https://carnegieendowment.org/europe/strategic-europe/2017/06/the-nato-russia-founding-act-a-dead-letter?lang=en
https://www.ceris.be/blog/nato-russia-is-there-a-future/
Zelensky is correct. We did not give any terms when we gave Ukraine weapons and money, it was aid, not debt. We are free to stop giving aid but what has been given cannot be retaken. We could condition future aid on mineral resources but not what we have already gave them.
Some of the US aid has been in the form of loans rather than equipment or financial grants. But most or all of that is either:
1) Taken from seized Russian assets, or
2) Guaranteed by European regimes.
In the former case, if Ukraine defaults, the US will presumably just forgive it. In the latter case, if Ukraine defaults, the US will presumably just forgive it.
For if, assume an actual meaning of “when.” Regardless of the war’s outcome, Ukraine isn’t likely to be in much position to pay back, nor is the US likely to be in much position to exercise mining rights without someone else’s permission.
Some of the money from congress was considered loans.
So funny. The Demo Rats criticize Trump's acting like a mobster. I think they're jealous.
Maybe the US should also ask Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan for compensation for "all the wonderful things the US did for (to) them" ??
US oil Corps. pump oil in both Libya and Iraq. That's the compensation.
LOL It sounds like Z is just asking for some of that American Democracy and Freedom to be dropped on his remaining part of the Ukraine.
"We begin bombing in five minutes"- Ronald Reagan
The UN General Assembly votes on Ukraine… Lots of absentees…!
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/26b3b24b3fffb56ff08fa9c5ef3a02c821a8d973e4f9297793217c5dce186bf7.png
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7db9c4c1699b007d5bad9d4c6351f01c9640fed515b8103a6ded5e1006bb9bbd.jpg
Not Comparable…!
Very comparable. Majority in Favour.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/78bc54250a3e5f38d7cf952dae9c4713c35795a3b17dca6a51afb6c06e6162fe.jpg https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bbb80b8fc779eb9d31a8fc3de3badf135a0c054aaa25a66b80429d6ba426cfdf.jpg
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/un-general-assembly-demands-russian-federation-withdraw-all-military-forces-territory-ukraine_und_en
https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/whatsinblue/2025/02/ukraine-briefing-and-vote-on-a-draft-resolution.php
Tomorrow afternoon (24 February), the Security Council will convene for a high-level briefing on Ukraine. The meeting was requested by Ukraine, supported by Denmark, France, Greece, Panama, the Republic of Korea (ROK), Slovenia, the UK, and the US to mark the three-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo is the anticipated briefer. Ukraine and several regional countries are expected to participate under rule 37 of the Council’s provisional rules of procedure.
https://main.un.org/securitycouncil/en
https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/02/1160396 UKRAINE LIVE: Diplomatic debate steps up a gear as world marks three years since full-scale Russian invasion
https://usun.usmission.gov/remarks-at-a-un-general-assembly-emergency-special-session-on-ukraine/
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/02/24/us-opposes-ukraine-territorial-integrity-in-un-vote-2-a88150
https://webtv.un.org/en
Zelenskyy better be careful. Mussolini was hailed as a great Italian patriot until Italians perceived they had lost the War . Then Mussolini found himself hanging upside down being bludgeoned with sticks in Milan.
Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu are also a nice warning example for Zelenskyy … and every other politician on earth.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ba06a0b394d58bc8b2b22d4c5031d98017fc621563d546ecf860b18ad4f080b7.jpg
…and his wife/mistress, Clara Petacci
“War is a matter not so much of arms as of money.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides,
460 B.C.E. – 400 B.C.E.
“Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
― Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
An American "Empire of Liberty."
Thomas Jefferson, April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826 C.E.
Thomas Jefferson's words, actions and policies helped the United States grow from a small republic into a global empire.
"Kill the Indian, Save the Man”*
America arose and spread from ethnic cleansing and genocide.
A kinder, gentler world?!
“America is never wholly herself unless she is engaged in high moral principle. We as a people have such a purpose today. It is to make kinder the face of the nation and gentler the face of the world.” — Inauguration speech, Jan. 20, 1989.
“I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only ask them to think”
Socrates, 470 – 399 B.C.E.
dennis hanna
*Richard Henry Pratt (December 6, 1840 – March 15, 1924), Pratt was a Puritan. He appropriated “Kill the Indian, Save the Man” from the Puritans. It was (is) their ethic. In modern vernacular: “Hate the sin, not the sinner.”
On that point, V. Zelensky is right. That war to “weaken Russia“ was planned and provoked by a few US administrations, beginning with the Clinton administration, which reneged on the previous G. H. Bush administration's promise that NATO would not advance “one inch Eastward" toward Russia.
The B. Obama administration financed the overthrow of the elected pro-Russian Ukrainian government in February 2014.
Then, the Biden administration with Republican support extended $100 billion of grants to Ukraine to purchase armaments. It also vetoed a peace agreement that the Ukrainian government had accepted in December 2021.
D. Trump is wrong again. It's the US government that should compensate the country of Ukraine for its lost of lives and destruction for the US having used Ukraine to start a new cold war with Russia.
All the rest is pure fiction and make believe.
Old Joe didn't do you any favors, huh?
I know what Trump response is gonna be… That shit didn't happen under my watch… You still owe us…!
Except of course Zelensky was the one who offered Ukraine's minerals to the US. To the former adminstration at first. This was why we saw Lindsey Graham start drooling all over them. The saliva might have got flowing because it sounded to him an even better deal than to subsidize the US weapon industry via Ukraine with only Ukrainians dying. Not that dead Americans would upset him too much, it's just that they're not really photogenic and come with a political cost. The Ukrianian corpses as opposed are easy sweep under the rug.
If most of meaningful minerals are under Russian controlled territories… would that indicate Zelensky lied to Biden just like he lied to Trump…?!
Trump lied about Ukraine to the whole world.
So did his predecessors. Lying is what ALL politicians do, when there's money to be made for the few who profit.
I don’t remember his predecessors falsely claiming that Ukraine started the war, or that Zelensky is a dictator. Perhaps you could enlighten me?
Ukraine had a Nazi faction that was attempting to exterminate Russians in their part of Ukraine. Forget that? The predecessors falsely claimed that it was all Russia’s fault, which is also a lie. As every mother told us, ‘it takes two to make a fight.’ But, sometimes it takes three, that being NATO.
Putin hired a private Nazi paramilitary company to exterminate Ukrainians. Remember that?
The Nazi Wagner Group's leader, oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin and second in command, Dmitry Utkin, died in a plane crash after Prigozhin ordered his troops to march towards Moscow to seek “revenge” after accusing Russia’s military leadership of killing his forces. Prigozhin said that the government's justifications for invading Ukraine were based on falsehoods, and that the invasion was designed only to further the interests of Russian elites.
War criminals Trump, Netanyahu and Putin are the new "Axis of Evil."
Anybody remember Bush saying the oil 'we' get from defeated Iraq would pay for the (trillion dollar) war? I'll believe this one when I see it and put it under both that and the trickle-down money from Reagan (I was too young to remember that, but was told about it numerous times). And, the 'we' thingy was Bush and his oil buddies in the UK/Israel/US who really profited.
No oil, no US military.
THX
Zelensky STILL can't WON'T beg for $$ for a phreaking SUIT and TIE!!! Lazy Loser begger ingrate….Looters blantantly and Orwellian Newspeak lie openly and ongoingly…. the Looters here in US also lie constitantly… Well lets get our UnConstitutionally placed troops AND EQUIPMENT(unlike Afghanistan)in and around the Ukraine AND Middle East BACK HOME….let the Europeans duke it out over shi_hole crooked socialist countries and provinces(Ukraine) enjoy your NATO….
Uppity Nazi.