Posted on 02/07/2025 12:26:14 PM PST by marcusmaximus
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy pored over a once-classified map of vast deposits of rare earths and other critical minerals during an interview with Reuters on Friday, part of a push to appeal to Donald Trump's penchant for a deal.
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"We need to stop Putin and protect what we have - a very rich Dnipro region, central Ukraine," he said.
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"The Americans helped the most, and therefore the Americans should earn the most. And they should have this priority, and they will. I would also like to talk about this with President Trump."
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In addition, Zelenskiy said Kyiv and the White House were discussing the idea of using Ukraine's vast underground gas storage sites to store U.S. liquefied natural gas.
"I know that the Trump administration is very interested in it ... We're ready and willing to have contracts for LNG supplies to Ukraine. And of course, we will be a hub for the whole of Europe," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
I’m with President Trump on this one. This is an easy decision for all Americans except, of course, for those who want to put America Last and Make Russia Great Again.
Translation: The aid is going to come regardless because kicking Russian influence and corruption out of Europe has always been in US national interest. But we need to couch it in terms even the dullest tools in the shed can understand. So here is some pablum for them to digest.
If an election were held today in Ukraine, Zelensky would lose—bigly.
As if that’s a bad thing. Yes, Zelensky, could lose. That’s how democracies work. Contrast that to Putin’s illegitimate regime and Russia where anybody who could beat Putin gets a) a bullet in the head or b)a bomb on their airplane that blows them to bits. Interesting, looks we have found the Nazis here and they’re in Russia.
Zelensky’s approval rating is slightly over 50% right now.
“We need to stop Putin...”
Wait, Putin isn’t being stopped but is still losing?
He did it to himself. Let’s see how much the twerking freak really loves his Ukraine. He would make a good Democrat.
It’s quite obvious why Russophiles are so desperate to remove Zelensky: he’s effective in opposing Putin’s regime and the Moscow Kremlin’s latest genocidal war of choice on a neighbor of Russia. If Zelensky was Putin’s stooge and a traitor to his country they’d be just fine with any level of corruption and mass murder from him.
so sad !!
“...because kicking Russian influence and corruption out of Europe has always been in US national interest.”
Explain why koolaid drinker.
“Contrast that to Putin’s illegitimate regime ...”
You mean the last election where he got 90% ? that illegitimacy?
Zelensky should not be the one negotiating on the fate of Ukraine. An election should be held immediately so whomever wins actually represents the views of the majority of Ukrainians.
Your whataboutism on Putin is irrelevant. We have different standards than the Russians. We support democracy in Ukraine. Zelensky’s term of office expired a long time ago. The excuse that the Ukrainian constitution allows him to stay on due to martial law should be changed by the Ukrainian parliament and elections held immediately.
Any election where the winner gets 90% is prima facie illigimate. Only Marxists and morons believe in such fairy tales.
“We support democracy in Ukraine”. Those who have consistently defended the Russian position want Zelensky distracted and/or removed because he is an effective war time leader. That they can’t admit that shows the moral bankruptcy of their position.
Are you suggesting Russia supports “democracy in Ukraine”, too? Is that why they have undemocratically annexed large areas of Ukraine into Russia? Because Putin really supports “Democracy in Ukraine”?
Ukraine has elections. Quite often when their cities are not being genocidal erased by invaders. It’s Russia that has non functioning political institutions. It’s dictator of now 25 years has murdered by bomb and bullet all credible opposition. Now he does the same in Ukraine. Mass murdering all Ukrainians who oppose his revanchist political agenda. He has directed his regime to launch the biggest war in Europe since WW2. That has resulted in the deaths of, according to President Trump, of over one million people.
Why are you not calling for free elections in Russia? Why are you not questioning the ligitimacy of Putin’s mafia regime?
The problem here never been Ukrainians and their desire for a national identity outside of the Russian World. It’s genocidal Russian revanchism, those who support it and those who excuse it.
Because you say so doesn’t make it true, Jack.
Just may be that the overwhelming number of people support the person. something your peabrain unable to comprehend.
“Any deal will be designed to compensate for the money we’ve wasted on this war already and will only involve areas that Ukraine still controls.”
Which is about 30% (and shrinking) of their total mineral deposits. They should have taken the deal Putin offered in Dec. 2021, where they would retained Eastern Ukraine...now it’s part of Russia.
Might be worth a reminder . . . does everyone have a really good quantitative feel for the particular reality of $37 Trillion?
One can very safely conclude that $100B+ per year is beyond capacity. If the administration decided it wants to do this, it’s very possible the system won’t allow it. Bond yields might spike to 15%.
I can assure everyone, if analysis says a surge of bond yields is because traders cannot tolerate another $100B+ sent elsewhere, then that will be that.
We have already paid for those minerals and then some.
The USA’s MONETARY contribution is almost negligible compared to the Euro’s much larger financial support. Where we are way ahead is in sending weapons.
What’s interesting is that the weapons appropriations (ie., funding passed by Congress) appear to substantially exceed the stated value of actual weapons releases’ to Ukraine. Shipment amounts and dates were stopped being given out quite a while back - understandable from a security standpoint, but, the “releases” occur B4 “sends” anyway.
One of the problems in trying to track this stuff is that different parts of the US Gov’t, not to mention outside sources, use different terminology. Here is the link for the Inspector General Office supposed to be tracking all the support (from the USA):
https://www.ukraineoversight.gov/Funding/
On that site “appropriated or otherwise made available” is roughly the same thing as “appropriations” or “funding passed by Congress” stated other places. “Obligated” seems to line up with “released”. That is, the Administration has said “send it”. “Disbursed” seems to line up with “committed” at the Ukraine Support Tracker website, and means “out the door” or in the process to go out the door (which, if it refers to, say, a Bradley Fighting Vehicle needing some spiffing up, might take months.)
Basically, one can conclude there is often a lot of lag in the system. Some surprise, huh?
In any event, rare minerals for weapons seems like a fair deal, and in fact was in Z-Man’s “Five Point Plan”, which came out on Oct. 16, 2024, was presented to Biden, Harris, Trump, and major US allies in Sept. 2024, and to the EU summit in October. It would seem that Trump is the party who has picked back up on it, possibly thinking supplies from China may become extremely problematic?
Or abided by the Minsk Accords or took the deal worked out in Turkey in March of 2022.
But, Zelensky decided he needed another mansion or two and decided to be Biden and Boris Johnson's puppet.
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