Posted on 02/27/2025 6:18:25 AM PST by delta7
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is slated to meet with US President Donald Trump at the White on Friday to finalize the widely publicized mineral deal. The initial demand for $500 billion in minerals was perhaps a reminder to Ukraine of how much the US has spent on their war. The current draft would establish a jointly managed Reconstruction Investment Fund.
It is estimated that Ukraine holds 5% of world’s critical raw materials. Ukrainian officials believe they have 19 million tonnes of graphite reserves and significant deposits of titanium, rare earth metals, and lithium. The current plan would require harvesting up to HALF of Ukraine’s minerals and rare earth materials.
The White House believes that this new deal could be worth $1 trillion. Donald Trump has stated that American taxpayers must “get their money back” after Biden sent an untold fortune to fund the proxy war. Yet, there has been much bickering between Zelensky and Trump on whether all or part of that money was a grant or a loan. Either way, the Russia-US meeting last week shook up negotiations. Ukraine expressed anger and turned to European leaders who immediately gathered to see how they could push forth this war without America. Zelensky’s willingness to sign a deal tells us the outcome of those meetings. Even French President Emmanuel Macron is welcoming a deal between the US and Ukraine.
“The provisions of the deal are much better for Ukraine now,” a source in Ukraine’s government told the BBC. The specifics have not been outlined. The caveat for Ukraine is a security guarantee, which the US has not offered at the time of this writing. “I want to find a Nato path or something similar,” Zelensky told the BBC. “If we don’t get security guarantees, we won’t have a ceasefire, nothing will work, nothing.”
NATO membership is off the table. Donald Trump’s administration has not taken a side in this foreign war and the next move is crucial. Russia has come out to offer a counter-mineral deal to America. Russia “undoubtedly have [sic], I want to emphasize, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine,” Putin said. “As for the new territories, it’s the same. We are ready to attract foreign partners to the so-called new, to our historical territories, which have returned to the Russian Federation,” he added.
The world will be watching this Friday as this deal could change the trajectory of America’s position in the war.
We will need to build a military base in Ukraine in order to shut down Pootie from spreading the USSR. Similar to the one we put in Poland.
Yes, I used to negotiate for a living. There’s much we don’t know about this deal, and I’m unable to guess what it’s really all about at this point. Are these add ons really that valuable? As I mused in A previous post on this thread, maybe the port operations part is actually a key bit, aimed at saving what is left of Ukraine’s coast from falling to Russia.
Or maybe there’s more infrastructure involved, not just ports. There has been talk that the profits from the minerals plus the add ons will go into a fund regulated under New York law (presumably to minimize corruption — clever move) and either 50% or all of these profits will go toward Ukraine’s reconstruction. So many conflicting reports and rumors. Who knows what to believe?
Disregarding the shiny things we are presented with by Trump and the media, What do you think Trumps overall goal is?
I don’t know. It’s not easy trying to read Trump’s mind!
Zelensky was the one who brought up the minerals and said “Let’s make a deal”. So why did Trump decide to bite on that hook? It’s anybody’s guess.
I’ve already posted my musings and guesses here. It could even be that he was trying to tempt Putin into offering us a piece of Russia’s mineral pie. If so, it worked.
There are lots of things on the bargaining table besides Ukraine, NATO, a new security architecture, minerals and other resources, etc. There’s also the arctic, nuclear arms treaties, space and so on. There will be trades for bits and pieces here and there that seem unrelated, but are bargaining chips to be stacked.
I suppose we’ll see how it goes.
Herecomes Mr. Rumpled clothes. Wear a dmm suit!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.