From Cactus Flower.
Donald Trump is seeking US control over all of Ukraine’s rare minerals and energy assets – including oil and gas – in extraordinary new proposals to Kyiv.
Mr Trump’s latest proposals go far beyond the minerals deal that collapsed last month during Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous White House visit, multiple news outlets reported on Thursday.
The new deal would see the US receive all royalties from such assets until Ukraine has paid off at least $100bn of war debt, and hand Kyiv just 50 per cent thereafter – while offering no guarantees of security from Russian aggression in return.
Furthermore, it would hand the US a veto over any sales of the Ukrainian resources to other nations, potentially blocking any future path for Ukraine to join the European Union.
One Kyiv official described the proposal as “robbery” to the Financial Times, while Alan Riley, an expert on energy law at the Atlantic Council, told The Telegraph: “I’ve never seen anything like it before ... I have to wonder whether the real intention might not be to force Zelensky to reject it.”
Do something positive.
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