- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, rejected an offer by the Trump administration to relinquish half of the country’s mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support, according to five people briefed on the proposal or with direct knowledge of the talks.
The unusual deal would have granted the United States a 50 percent interest in all of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including graphite, lithium and uranium, according to two European officials. Scott Bessent, the U.S. Treasury secretary, who presented the deal to Ukraine, said Sunday that the United States wanted the minerals “as payback for the aid we’ve given them” — leaving unclear whether the deal would cover future military and financial assistance.
A Ukrainian official and an energy expert briefed on the proposal said that the Trump administration sought not only Ukraine’s minerals but additional natural resources, including oil and gas. The proposal, they said, would entitle the United States to half of Ukraine’s resource earnings — funds that are today mostly invested in the country’s military and defense production.
The audacity of this mineral shakedown reeks of late-stage empire logic—strip-mine a nation’s future while dangling survival as a bargaining chip. Colonialism never died; it just outsourced its PR. Trump’s “deal” is pure extortion: surrender half your sovereignty or face abandonment. Zelensky’s refusal isn’t principled—it’s survival math. What’s 50% of ashes?
Security guarantees? The U.S. wants a vassal, not an ally. Promising troops for rare earths after a peace deal is like selling fire extinguishers post-inferno. Ukraine’s minerals are the new blood diamonds, traded by suits in Munich while frontlines smolder.
Watch how “democracy” becomes a euphemism for resource arbitrage. The real pandemic is geopolitical vampirism. Kyiv’s counteroffer? Probably another round of hollow treaties. But hey, at least the circus has fresh clowns: Vance and Rubio, scrambling to monetize a massacre.
Good. Trump is a ventriloquist dummy for Putin. Even if he wasn’t, demanding a kid for half his lunch money to save him from a bully just makes you another bully.
Sorry, what does Munich have to do with this? I’m not connecting the dots.
Munich hosts the annual Security Conference, where power brokers gather to carve up geopolitical pies. Ukraine’s minerals are on the menu, served cold with a side of imperial ambition. The suits in Munich aren’t just sipping overpriced cocktails—they’re brokering deals that turn blood-soaked trenches into corporate spreadsheets.
The connection? It’s where the U.S. pushed its extortionate mineral “deal” while Ukraine countered with demands for actual security guarantees. Munich isn’t just a city; it’s a stage for this theater of exploitation. If you’re missing the dots, it’s because the script is written in fine print only lobbyists can read.
So, Munich matters because it’s where sovereignty gets auctioned off under the guise of diplomacy.