Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky said he plans to meet President Donald Trump “as early as this Friday” to sign a bilateral commercial agreement to jointly develop and manage Ukraine’s mineral wealth.
Trump insisted on the deal three weeks after taking over in return for the support provided by the US over the three years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, telling the interviewer. [Ukraine] I want something worth $500 million worth of rare earths, and they essentially agree to do it. ”
Zelenskyy publicly rejected the numbers, and he twice refused a transaction that did not include Ukraine’s security guarantees.
The contract text released by Western media on Wednesday did not reveal guarantees and capped the value the US receives.
According to the leaked agreement, Ukraine and the United States have established a joint fund, which “contributes 50% of all revenues from future monetization of natural resource assets owned by all relevant Ukrainian governments.
It also included revenue generated by infrastructure such as fossil gas terminals and ports.
The fund’s revenue will be reinvested “to promote safety, security and prosperity in Ukraine.”
This week, joint reports from the European Commission, the World Bank, the United Nations and the Ukrainian government brought the country’s cost of reconstruction to more than $5 trillion.
The mineral agreement also did not address where Ukraine left its members of the European Union, which provided more than half of the military and financial aid it received, except that it said that it would “strive to avoid conflict with Ukrainian obligations based on its membership in the European Union.”
French Defense Minister Sebastian Recorne has revealed in consultation with Ukraine since October to ensure access to rare minerals essential to the defense and electronic industries.
“Our defense industry needs a lot of very important raw materials for our own weapons systems for the next 30 or 40 years, not for next year, and we have to diversify it,” he said in an interview aired.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tass wrote on social media that the agreement was leaked on the day it was leaked: “Uncertainty, unpredictability, transactions. Are these really rules that the new international order should be based on?”
Trump’s war of words with Europe
Trump has kept his hostile view of the EU a secret. “The European Union was established to ruin the United States. That’s the purpose and they did a very good job,” he told reporters at the start of the first cabinet meeting on February 26th.
Tusk responded by posting. It’s exactly the opposite. It was formed to maintain peace, build respect among our nations, and create free and fair trade. ”
Trump’s departure from a common position with Europe in Ukraine was revealed when he began in-person meetings with Russia, which did not include Ukraine or the EU. The second round of these talks was to be held in Istanbul on Thursday.
As the war celebrated its third anniversary on Monday, Trump was further apart, seized by Russia, along with Russia in a UN Security Council vote to avoid the names of invaders in the Russian war, or by demanding the return of Ukrainian lands.
EU member of the Security Council, including the UK, France, Greece, Slovenia and Denmark.
The United States attempted to hand over the same text by UN General Assembly (UNGA) vote early in the day, but was denied. The resolution passed by UNGA avoided being named by Russia as an invader of war, but sought a restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity in accordance with the UN Charter.
In 2023, Ukraine embarked on an effort to pass a UNGA resolution denounced Russia as an invader. Monday’s resolution, passed by 93 of the 193 countries, showed how far Ukraine is from winning a two-thirds majority it seeks.
“A system, based on rules, contracts and shared values, was under a tsunami of geopolitical and geopolitical challenges…now its entire existence is at issue,” wrote Victoria Vdowichenko, program leader at the Cambridge University Center for Geopolitics, in an article showing War Memorial Day.
Among the signs of Trump’s power, the Europeans tried to appease him despite the increased distance between them.
The day after the UN vote, French President Emmanuel Macron held a cheerful press conference with Trump at the White House, where he offered careful support for the mineral trade.
He also agreed that European countries “need to do more to share a considerable amount of security burden your country has been carrying for years.”
Trump’s Secretary of Defense Pete Hegses frankly said on February 12th that it “prevents the United States from focusing primarily on Europe’s safety,” calling for Europeans to spend 5% of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defense.
Starge of Britain’s Minion Starkiel became the second EU leader to mandate Trump by announcing a defensive spending hike ahead of his trip to Washington on Thursday. He said defence spending in the UK will reach 2-2.5% of GDP by 2027 and 3% by 2029.
Ukraine has very few US security guarantees
Hegus told Europeans he had to provide Ukraine with a “overwhelming share.”
That was highlighted this week, as Trump said he would not take on the Lion’s share of security guarantees.
Trump told reporters he had no obligation.
“I’m not going to provide much security guarantee,” he said Wednesday. “We’re going to let Europe do that.”
It appeared to undermine the hopes that Zelensky expressed after General Keith Kellogg, a special envoy in Ukraine, visited him in Kiev on February 20.
On Sunday, Zelensky even offered Trump to resign after Trump called him a dictator.
“That’s about peace in Ukraine and if you really want me to leave my position, I’m ready to do it,” he told reporters. “Secondly, you can exchange it for NATO. [membership] If there is such an opportunity. ”
Earlier that day, Russia unleashed the biggest air attack of the war with Ukrainian cities, accompanied by 267 Shahed Kamikaze drones and three ballistic missiles. Ukraine fired down or used electronic jamming to confuse everyone except seven drones.
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