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Britain wants Ukraine’s minerals too

It’s not just Trump. The UK views critical minerals as a government priority and wants to open up Ukraine’s vast resources to British corporations.

MARK CURTIS, 11 March 2025,
more https://www.declassifieduk.org/britain-wants-ukraines-minerals-too/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=Button&utm_campaign=ICYMI&utm_content=Button

When UK officials signed a 100 year partnership with Ukraine in mid-January, they claimed to be Ukraine’s “preferred partner” in developing the country’s “critical minerals strategy”.

Yet within a month, Donald Trump had presented a proposal to Ukraine’s President Volodymr Zelensky to access the country’s vast mineral resources as “compensation” for US support to Ukraine in the war against Russia.

Whitehall was none too pleased about Washington muscling in. 

When foreign secretary David Lammy met Zelensky in Kyiv last month he reportedly raised the issue of minerals, “a sign that Starmer’s government is still keen to get access to Ukraine’s riches”, the iPaper reported. 

Lammy earlier said, in a speech last year: “Look around the world. Countries are scrambling to secure critical minerals, just as great powers once raced to control oil”.

The UK foreign secretary was correct, but Britain itself is one of those powers, and Ukraine is one of the major countries UK officials – as well as the Trump administration – have their eyes on. 

It’s no surprise why. Ukraine has around 20,000 mineral deposits covering 116 types of minerals such as beryllium, manganese, gallium, uranium, zirconium, rare earth metals, and nickel. 

The country, whose economy has been devastated by Russia’s brutal war, also possesses one of the world’s largest reserves of graphite, the largest titanium reserves in Europe, and a third of the continent’s lithium deposits. 

These resources are key for industries such as military production, high tech, aerospace, and green energy. 

In recent years, the Ukrainian government has sought to attract foreign investment to develop its critical mineral resources and signed strategic partnerships and held investment fora to showcase its mining opportunities. 

The country has also begun auctioning exploration permits for minerals such as lithium, copper, cobalt and nickel, offering lucrative investment opportunities. 

Media narratives largely parrot the UK government’s interests in Ukraine being about standing up to aggression. But Whitehall has in the past few years stepped up its interest in accessing the world’s critical minerals, not least in Ukraine. www.liberalsagainstnuclear.au

March 19, 2025 Posted by | politics international, UK, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Walt Zlotow: Trump pushing Ukraine peace for simple reason: he has no cards to play either.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL 17 Mar 25

At his Oval Office kerfuffle with Ukraine President Zelensky, President Trump told Zelensky he had to make peace with Russia. This followed Zelensky’s plea for more US weapons to keep the war going till Ukraine prevails. Trump disabused him of that notion by saying “You have no cards to play”, colloquial for ‘Make peace, not war.’

Trump knows he has no cards to play as well in the ongoing peace negotiations in Saudi Arabia. That’s why he is anxious to end the war. He knows predecessor Biden made a catastrophic mistake provoking the war over 3 years ago. He knows Ukraine is on the brink of military collapse in spite of the $175 billion in weapons Biden poured into Ukraine that has merely turned it into a failed state. Trump knows Biden sabotaged the imminent peace treaty Putin and Zelensky were prepared to sign ending the war in its first 2 months.

He wants none of that disastrous Biden war policy attached to his foreign policy resume.

Every American, every Ukrainian, every Russian should support the Trump peace initiative that could end the war, bring security to the region, allow reconstruction of the 80% of what’s left of Ukraine, provide resumption of normal US Russia diplomatic relations. Most importantly, it will end the risk of this war going nuclear, a threat hanging over peoplekind every one of the 1,120 days of this totally unnecessary, lost war.

Trump didn’t change sides. He’s not abandoning an ally. He’s not a Russian agent. He’s not a traitor. Unlike Biden, he’s merely a realist who looked at his empty hand, saw Russian President Putin was holding 4 aces, and decided to walk away lest another 100,000 Ukrainians are needlessly sacrificed for America’s lust to control European geopolitics.

On this issue President Trump deserves our support.

March 19, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Putin Signals He’s Open to Ceasefire as Witkoff Arrives for Talks.

An aide to Putin said the proposal would only help Ukraine regroup and that it would need to be adjusted to meet Moscow’s position

by Dave DeCamp March 13, 2025, https://news.antiwar.com/2025/03/13/us-envoy-arrives-in-russia-to-discuss-30-day-ceasefire-proposal-with-putin/

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signaled that he’s open to a ceasefire in Ukraine but that he has “questions” about the 30-day US-Ukraine proposal that need to be discussed.

“The idea itself is the right one, and we definitely support it,” Putin said, according to The New York Times. “But there are questions that we need to discuss, and I think that we need to talk them through with our American colleagues and partners.”

The Russian leader listed potential conditions for a 30-day truce, including a guarantee that Ukraine wouldn’t be supplied with more weapons. “We also want guarantees that during the 30-day ceasefire, Ukraine will not conduct mobilization, will not train soldiers, and will not receive weapons,” he said, according to RT.

Putin also questioned who would monitor the ceasefire. “Who will determine where and who has violated a potential ceasefire agreement along a 2,000-kilometer line? Who will attribute blame for any violations? These are all questions that require thorough examination from both sides,” he said.

The Russian leader said any long-term peace deal needs to address the “root causes” of the war. He made the comments as US envoy Steve Witkoff arrived in Russia to discuss the proposal. Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin official, said Witkoff would be holding a closed-door meeting with Putin.

Ushakov also said the US-Ukraine proposal would only give Ukraine a chance to regroup, and it would need to be adjusted to meet Moscow’s interests.

“As for the 30-day temporary ceasefire, what is it about? There is nothing in it for us. It will only provide the Ukrainians with the opportunity to regroup and gain strength to continue doing what they are doing,” he said, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

“These are some hasty actions that do not benefit a long-term settlement … We will need to work on it, to think it over so that it reflects our position, too. It reflects only Ukraine’s stance at this point,” he added.

Ushakov said that Russia wanted a long-term peace deal and that the “official” Russian position on the US-Ukraine proposal would be formulated by Putin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made similar comments opposing the idea of a temporary ceasefire, pointing to the Minsk Accords, which were first reached in 2014 for a truce in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region. Lavrov also mentioned the “Istanbul agreement,” referring to a peace deal that was on the table in March and April 2022, which was discouraged by the US and its allies.

“I’m talking about the Minsk Accords, the deal that was discarded after the 2014 coup, and the Istanbul agreements. All of those included a ceasefire. And every time, it turned out that they had lied to us. The Ukrainians lied with the support of their European partners,” Lavrov said.

A joint statement between the US and Ukraine that was released after talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday said that Ukraine had “expressed readiness to accept the US proposal to enact an immediate, interim 30-day ceasefire, which can be extended by mutual agreement of the parties, and which is subject to acceptance and concurrent implementation by the Russian Federation.”

The statement also said that the US had resumed military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine, which was briefly paused. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that if Russia doesn’t accept the 30-day proposal, the US would then know who the “impediment” to peace is, signaling he wants the proxy war will continue as usual if a deal isn’t reached.

March 17, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Russia, Ukraine | Leave a comment

‘Ukraine will not recognize any territory occupied by Russia’: Zelensky


Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, Wed, 12 Mar 2025,  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/moscow-studying-30-day-truce-plan-while-making-steady-battlefield-gains-meantime

 On Wednesday Zelensky shut the door on territorial concessions, awkwardly at a moment Ukraine has just agreed to a US plan for a 30-day ceasefire intended to pave the way for extended peace negotiations. An initial statement from the Kremlin said that Putin likely to eventually agree to truce but with own terms as Moscow “studies” the Trump-sponsored proposal hammered out during the Tuesday Jeddah talks.

Zelensky said in fresh comments:

“We are fighting for our independence. Therefore, we will not recognize any occupied territories as Russia’s. This is a fact. Our people have fought for this, our heroes died. How many injured, how many passed. No one will forget about it… This is the most important red line. We will not let anyone forget about this crime against Ukraine.”

But Russia’s red line in any near-future negotiations will be to demand recognition of the Russian Federations sovereign control over the four easter territories of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions – which President Putin has previously referred to as “our citizens forever.”

As for Zelensky’s new proclamation that he won’t cede territory, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters just after the Ukraine-US talks in Saudi Arabia that discussions with Kiev’s delegations included “territorial concessions” as part of a negotiated settlement. The suggestion from the US side is that Ukraine showed openness and willingness on this question. So either the two allies can’t get on the same page (which is no surprise), or else Zelensky is trying to tank these negotiation efforts before they ever get off the ground, also as the White House has pressed Kiev to hold new presidential elections.

Fresh comments from Zelensky asserting Ukraine will NOT recognize any territory occupied by Russia…

Certainly Russia sees no need to rush into negotiations, especially if Zelensky is unwilling to budge on territory in the east, given all the battlefield gains of late. Kursk will also soon return to full Russian control, as Ukrainian forces there are reportedly in disarray, and as Moscow has taken back over a dozen key sites just this week.

The Kremlin says it is “studying” statements issued by the US and Ukrainian delegations following yesterday’s talks in Jeddah, and further describes Russian officials are waiting for a fuller briefing from the US on the proposal. The 30-day ceasefire plan calls for a halt to all the fighting on land, sea and in the air – whichcan be extended by mutual agreement, with a hoped-for path to a permanent truce based on negotiations in the interim.

Zelensky in a Tuesday X post said the ceasefire will apply to missile, drone and bomb attacks “not only in the Black Sea, but also along the entire front line” – though its as yet unclear what mechanism there will be to monitor this.

The joint statement issued from Jeddah said the sides “will communicate to Russia that Russian reciprocity is the key to achieving peace.” Thus nothing will happen unless Moscow agrees.

Washington has agreed to lift the Trump ban on arms and intelligence for Kiev, while at the same time Kiev and Washington agreed on inking a deal on Ukraine’s critical minerals “as soon as possible”.

Russian state media is meanwhile reporting that President Putin is open to holding a telephone conversation with his US counterpart.

On the potential for a new Trump call to discuss progress toward setting up negotiations and a truce, spokesman Dimitry Peskov said Wednesday:

“We also do not rule out that the topic of a call at the highest level may arise. If such a need emerges, it will be organized very quickly. The existing channels of dialogue with the Americans make it possible to do this in a relatively short time.”

If it happens this would mark the second call since Trump’s inauguration, after the prior February 12 call. Theoretically this could lead to an in-person meeting between the two leaders if all goes well.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is traveling back from the meeting in Saudi Arabia, and gave some remarks to a press conference in Ireland:


  • Deterrence against future attacks on Ukraine will be a crucial element of future negotiations.
  • The US-Ukraine minerals deal benefits both nations and deepens Washington’s interest in Ukraine, but “I would not couch it as a security guarantee”.
  • European sanctions against Russia will be part of the negotiations, making Europe’s involvement in the process essential.
  • Any truce could be effectively monitored, but “one of the things we’ll have to determine is who both sides trust on the ground” to oversee it.

Ukraine continues to hold little to no leverage, given Russia is fast taking back its territory in Kursk as of mid-week. Over a dozen settlements have been liberated, and by all accounts Ukraine forces are in retreat there, also as Russian troops are currently in the center of Sudzha town.

One regional sources says that the Russian advance has been swift especially after one particularly daring operation: “Reports over the weekend claimed that 800 Russian special forces had crawled for 15 kilometers through an unused section of pipeline, which once carried Russian gas to Europe via Ukraine, in order to carry out a sneak attack on Ukrainian forces in Sudzha,” writes Moscow Times.

These developments mean that Putin is even less likely to agree to any temporary pause in fighting. In January statements he had warned the Kremlin will not sign off on any temporary truces – given Ukraine could just use it to rearm, resupply, and regroup. Moscow has less incentive to sign onto a deal unless territorial concessions are part of it, given that at this rate it can just keep advancing in territory, particularly in the Donbass.

March 16, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine | Leave a comment

NATO-Russia Ukrainian War Ceasefire: To Be Or Not To Be?

RUSSIAN and EURASIAN POLITICS, by Gordonhahn, March 14, 2025

On March 13th Russian President Vladimir Putin stated Moscow is open to a ceasefire leading to peace treaty talks, generally speaking. However, he stressed tghat there are “nuances” that need to be addressed before any ceasefire agreement could be concluded. The ‘nuances’ were really counteroffers made for practical reasons but also having the effect of returning the ball to the US-Ukrainian court, paraphrasing US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s assertion after the Ukrainians’ agreement to a ceasefire that ‘the ball is now in Moscow’s court.’ 

Highlighting what is or was missing from the American proposal to his knowledge at the time he was speaking (before meeting with US envoy Steven Witkoff, Putin said the issues in need of resolution are: (1) the remaining Ukrainian troops in Kursk, Russia; (2) Ukraine’s military mobilization and training of those mobilized; (3) arms sales to Ukraine; and (4) verification of any ceasefire covering the long ‘line of contact’ or frontlines needed to be resolved (http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/76450). The first issue is being resolved by the Russian army which has re-taken Sudzha and probably will have killed, captured, or pushed all Ukrainian troops out of Kursk Oblast within a week or so.

…………………………………………………..Putin’s public statements probably reflect what were communicated to U.S. negotiator Steven Witkoff more as requirements or conditions before any Russian agreement to a ceasefire. Pressing Kiev to halt mobilization and training, puts Zelenskiy in a difficult position, and Washington and or Kiev will likely respond that if Kiev is required to halt these activities, then Moscow must halt them or something analagous. This will highlight the coercive, violent aspect of what Ukrainians call ‘Ze-mobilization’—‘Ze’ referring to Zelenskiy.

…………………………….At the same time, the U.S. weapons to be supplied to Kiev are numbered. The Ameerican-Ukrainian statement on the ceaefire agreement declares that the U.S. “will immediately lift the pause on intelligence sharing and resume security assistance to Ukraine” (www.state.gov/joint-statement-on-the-united-states-ukraine-meeting-in-jeddah/).

……………………..Trump has not and may not use PDA to support in Ukraine in future, perhaps depending on Kiev’s willingess to negotiate, despite the inherent contradiction in demanding peace talks while supplying weapons. For Ukraine, this is a contradiction with an opportunity: to drag out talks while it rearms its forces along the contact line. 

Not surprisingly then, Russian officials have repeatedly stated they will not accept a ceasefire agreement and will continue fighting until a full-fledged peace agreement is reached. Their previous rejections of any ceasefire were precisely based on Russians’ suspicion that any pause in the fighting will be used to halt Russia’s mounting offensives, rearm Ukraine, and then resume the war with Kiev’s forces in a more robust state.

……………………… Putin may find his political position weakened in comparison with more hardline elements if seen as having fallen again for a another Western deception. This means he cannot accept continued arms supplies to Ukraine during a ceasefire.

……………………………………………………………………..Putin understands negotiating the details and mechanisms for implementing the ceasefire likely will take months. Meanwhile Russian troops can complete the process of expelling Ukrainian troops from the areas which the latter hold in at least two (Luhansk and Donetsk) of the four Donbass regions claimed by Russia and extending areas it holds in other Ukrainian regions. While these and Crimea are settled issues militarily and in terms of sovereignty—they are Russian; Kiev will not win them back for decades, a century, if ever. 

The situation with regard to the other two Russia-annexed but still not fully taken regions – Kherson and Zaporozhe’ – is more fluid. Russian forces control less than half of each’s territory and will have an extraordinarly difficult time seizing their capitol cities of the same name. Thus, the negotiations on territories, which, accordoing to Trump was under discussion at Riyadh with the Ukrainians, is likely to center around a possible trade with Moscow withdrawing its troops from areas it occupies in regions outside the four regions it claims for the remainder of the territory of the claimed regions still not held by Russian troops most likely in Kherson and Zaporozhe. All of this will be incredibly difficult to navigate politically, particularly for Zelenskiy and Ukraine. Moreover, it is unlikely that Kiev has more than half a year before the collapse begins of one or more of the following: the entire front, army, oligarch-neofascist Maidan regime, and Ukrainian state. 

Now we get to the most disconcerting fact hanging over the ceasefire endeavor. It was hinted at by Putin’s raising the vexing issue of verifying and monitoring the ceasefire……………………………………………………….. it will be a long, rocky road before any agreement is achieved, and failure could lead to an explosive doubling down on the disastrous NATO-Russia Ukrainian War and the destructive chaos of our new multipolar world.  https://gordonhahn.com/2025/03/14/nato-russia-ukrainian-war-ceasefire-to-be-or-not-to-be/

March 15, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine | Leave a comment

WSJ’s Chief Foreign Correspondent Declares It’s Over For Ukraine In Kursk

by Tyler Durden, Thursday, Mar 13, 2025,  https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/ukraine-losing-its-trump-card-key-kursk-town-liberated-russian-troops

 It’s a major turning point in the conflict when the Chief Foreign-Affairs Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal declares that Ukrainian forces are now in a full-on withdrawal from Russia’s Kursk amid rapid Russian gains…

Reuters too is reporting that Ukrainian forces are losing in Kursk:

Ukrainian troops appeared on the point of losing their hard-won foothold inside Russia’s Kursk region on Wednesday as Moscow claimed further advances there and military bloggers on both sides said Kyiv’s forces were withdrawing.

Ukraine sprang one of the biggest shocks of the war on August 6 last year by storming across the border and grabbing a chunk of land inside Russia, boosting citizens’ morale and gaining a potential bargaining chip.

There are no more cards to play, as Trump put it last month while hosting Zelensky at the White House, and now this assessment proves truer than ever.

Ukraine is losing the little bit of leverage it might have had left amid discussions toward preparing negotiations with Moscow. Russia’s Kursk is now fast being retaken, and Ukrainian forces are folding, as on Wednesday Russian troops raised their flags over the key town of Sudzha .

The central square of the town in the southwestern Kursk region was scene of where Russia’s Airborne Troops published a short aerial video showing soldiers unfurling a Russian flag as well as military unit banners. Other state media outlets subsequently featured the footage. Newsweek has underscored that Ukraine is fast “losing its trump card.”

Moscow has been focusing its forces on to regaining control around Sudzha in recent days, having retaken 12 settlements in the border region earlier this week.

Fighting is said to still be ongoing, but Moscow forces have asserted control over the center. Ukrainian media also acknowledges the following:

Russian troops have launched an offensive on the Ukrainian-controlled town of Sudzha in Russia’s Kursk Oblast, entering the settlement, the DeepState monitoring group, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), and the Russian state news agency TASS claimed on March 12. Fighting in the town is reportedly ongoing.

…According to DeepState, Russian forces have entered the eastern part of Sudzha and are entrenching their positions. TASS published purported drone footage claiming that Russian troops had entered the town center and raised a Russian flag.

War bloggers have been closely monitoring the fight for control of Sudzha, with Ruslan Leviev of the war monitor Conflict Intelligence Team describing that Ukrainian troops have been in steady retreat from the entire region.

“We’ve seen that all the areas coming under Russian control have been taken with little to no resistance. The same goes for Sudzha,” Leviev said. “Today, we’re seeing them on the opposite side [of the town]. And again, there are no images of any fighting.”

“At this point, it’s fair to say that the entire city of Sudzha is now under Russian control,” he described of the ground situation. 

While months ago Ukrainian forces occupied several hundred square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk region, as of Wednesday that control has shrunk to less than 200 square kilometers (77 square miles), according to the Ukraine-military linked DeepState war tracker.

Video said to be from on the ground in Russia’s Sudzha, including interviews with elderly Russians that stayed the whole time:

Recall that in the late last month famous Oval Office blow-up involving Trump, Zelensky, and J.D. Vance – Trump told the Ukrainian leader: “You don’t have the cards right now.”

That now appears truer than ever, at a moment the Russians are studying the new US-Ukraine proposal for a 30-day truce in order to jump-start direct negotiations to end the war.

March 14, 2025 Posted by | Russia, Ukraine, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Trump plans to make Ukraine a US economic colony, exploiting its critical minerals

COMMENT. The USA has played Zelensky for a sucker, all along. Now Ukraine is faced with trying to make the least worst deal to end the war. That is still better than annihilation and the very grave gamble with nuclear war.

Former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated clearly that Washington was using Ukraine to “weaken” Russia.

Trump also revealed that the United States plans to use Ukraine’s critical minerals to create “weaponry that we’re going to use in many locations”.

GeoPolitical Economy, By Ben Norton, 2 Mar 2025

Donald Trump’s fight with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House reflected how the US treats Ukraine as a colony. Trump demands control of the country’s rare earths and critical minerals, to weaken China, re-industrialize, and build tech products. Trump wants to be paid $350 billion, roughly twice Ukraine’s GDP.

The fight that broke out in the White House between US President Donald Trump and Ukraine’s leader, Volodymyr Zelensky, on February 28 was a stark symbol of the colonial relationship between the two countries.

“You’re in no position to dictate”, Trump yelled at Zelensky in the Oval Office. “You don’t have the cards right now. With us, you start having cards”.

The Trump administration has sought to impose an exploitative deal that will “make Ukraine a US economic colony”, in the words of the conservative British newspaper The Telegraph.

Trump is demanding control over Ukraine’s minerals, and plans to use revenue from the sale of its natural resources to pay the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, equivalent to roughly twice Ukraine’s GDP.

The US government believes that Ukraine could have trillions of dollars worth of rare earth elements and other critical minerals, which are needed for advanced technologies.

Trump wants to re-industrialize the United States, and he is offering corporations access to Ukraine’s resources to make their products.

This is part of Washington’s attempt to remove China from the supply chain for critical minerals, which has been a top priority of the Pentagon and the US House select committee on the Communist Party of China.

The Telegraph reported that Ukraine’s resources could be worth $15 trillion, writing that its “minerals offer a tantalising promise: the ability for the US to break its dependence on Chinese supplies of critical minerals that go into everything from wind turbines to iPhones and stealth fighter jets”.

Trump has stated that he wants to “un-unite” Russia and China, and his efforts to end the war in Ukraine also aim at splitting Moscow from Beijing.

Trump demands Ukraine pay the US twice its GDP

The US government pushed Ukraine into war with Russia, after expanding NATO up to Russia’s borders and backing a coup d’etat that overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected, geopolitically neutral government in 2014. This set off a violent conflict that escalated into a massive proxy war between NATO and Russia in 2022.

Former US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated clearly that Washington was using Ukraine to “weaken” Russia.

At different times, Trump has falsely claimed that the United States gave Ukraine $350 billion or $500 billion in aid. This is not true.

Independent analysts have calculated that the United States spent $119.7 billion on Ukraine-related “aid” since 2022.

According to the US Department of Defense, $182.8 billion was appropriated for military operations related to Ukraine from the end of 2021 to the end of 2024. The BBC noted that this figure includes military training in Europe and US weapons supplies.

Much of this “aid” consisted of US government contracts with private, for-profit weapons corporations, which produced the arms and ammunition that were sent to Ukraine.

In other words, the US military-industrial complex made a killing off of Ukraine “aid”.

Regardless, Trump is demanding that Ukraine pay the United States at least $350 billion, which is nearly two times the size of the country’s entire economy.

Ukraine’s GDP in 2024 was reported by the IMF to be $184.1 billion — although this figure is questionable, given the war.

The US wants Ukraine’s critical minerals

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, a close Trump ally, has repeatedly said that the United States wants to exploit Ukraine’s critical minerals.

In a June 2024 interview on CBS, Graham stated:

What did Trump do to get the weapons flowing [to Ukraine during his first term]? He created a loan system.

They’re sitting on $10 to $12 trillion of critical minerals in Ukraine. They could be the richest country in all of Europe. I don’t want to give that money and those assets to Putin, to share with China.

If we help Ukraine now, they can become the best business partner we ever dreamed of. That $10 to $12 trillion of critical mineral assets could be used by Ukraine and the West, not given to Putin and China. This is a very big deal, how Ukraine ends.

In an interview on Fox News, just two weeks after Trump won the presidential election in November 2024, Graham argued that “the war is about money”, and he promised that Trump would impose a deal to “enrich ourselves with rare earth minerals”:………………

It is not known if Ukraine actually has these large reserves of rare earths. This claim has been called into question.

Nevertheless, the Trump administration believes there could be trillions of dollars worth of untapped minerals, and it wants to carry out exploration operations.

In the disastrous White House press conference with Zelensky on February 28, Trump was asked if his plan would provide security for Ukraine, and he replied: “We have security in a different form. We’ll have workers there, digging, digging, digging, taking the raw earth [sic], so that we can create a lot of great product in this country”.

Trump also revealed that the United States plans to use Ukraine’s critical minerals to create “weaponry that we’re going to use in many locations”.

“This is an incredible agreement for Ukraine, because we have a big investment in their country now”, he said in the meeting with Zelensky. “And what they have, very few people have. And we’re able to really go forward with very, very high-tech things, and many other things, including weaponry — weaponry that we’re going to use in many locations, but that we need for our country”.

Throughout the press conference, Trump repeatedly referred to rare earth elements as “raw earth”.

A journalist asked Trump how exactly Ukraine will benefit from his one-sided deal. Trump responded by enthusiastically explaining how it will help the United States. The following is a partial transcript:

REPORTER: How does this provide long-term security for Ukraine?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, we don’t know exactly how much, because we’re going to be putting some money in a fund, that we’re going to get from the raw earth, that we’re going to be taking, and sharing, in terms of revenue. So it’s going to be a lot of money will be made from the sale, and from the use of raw earth……………………………………………….

Trump’s remarks criticizing US environmentalists over their opposition to the mining of rare earths was an implicit acknowledgment that the process is toxic.

In a peer-reviewed article published in 2024, scientific experts warned that the “long-term, large-scale mining and utilization of rare earths has caused serious environmental pollution and constitutes a global health issue, which has raised concerns regarding the safety of human health”.

The US government has apparently made the assessment that it would be better to pollute Ukraine by exploiting rare earths there, where Americans won’t suffer from the environmental impact.

Trump boasts of arming Ukraine

Trump’s discourse on Ukraine has been utterly contradictory. He has alternated between blaming Democratic Presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama for the war, while simultaneously boasting of supplying Kiev with weapons that Obama had initially refused to send.

Trump has repeatedly demanded credit for, during his first term, arming Ukraine with Javelin anti-tank missile systems, which were used to fight against Russian-backed forces in the eastern Donbas region.

In a press conference at the White House on February 25, a journalist asked Trump about the minerals deal. The following is a transcript of his response:

REPORTER: What does Ukraine get in return, Mr. President?

DONALD TRUMP: Uhh, $350 billion, and lots of equipment, and military equipment, and the right to fight on, and, originally, the right to fight.

Look, Ukraine, I will say, they’re very brave, and they’re good soldiers, but without the United States, and its money, and its military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time.

In fact, I was the one that gave the Javelins. You remember the famous Javelins? That was me. That wasn’t Obama; it wasn’t Biden; it wasn’t anybody else; it was me. And they wiped out a lot of tanks with those Javelins.

And the expression was that Obama gave sheets, and I gave the Javelins. That was a big deal, at the time. It wiped out — that was the beginning, when people said, “Wow, that’s something”.

Well, that was American equipment. Without American equipment, this war would have been over very quickly. And American money, too. I mean, a lot of money.

During his fight with Zelensky on February 28, the US president made similar comments.

Trump blamed the Ukraine war on Biden, whom he called “stupid”. At the same time, however, although he denied responsibility for the war, Trump could not help but brag about sending weapons to Ukraine during his first term, which exacerbated the war that was already ongoing at the time, before it massively escalated in 2022.

“We gave you military equipment, and your men are brave, but they had to use our military equipment”, Trump yelled at Zelensky. “If you didn’t have our military equipment, this war would have been over in two weeks”.

USA will control Ukraine’s reconstruction fund

The text of the agreement that Trump has sought to impose on Ukraine has not been publicly released.

The conservative British newspaper The Telegraph obtained the early draft of the deal, which the media outlet said would “amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity”.

This draft stated that the United States would get control over Ukraine’s “mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports, other infrastructure (as agreed)”. It is based not on Ukrainian law, but rather New York law.

The Telegraph wrote:

The US will take 50pc of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, and 50pc of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources. There will be “a lien on such revenues” in favour of the US. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children’,” said one source close to the negotiations.

It states that “for all future licences, the US will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals”. Washington will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy. The fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects. And so forth, in this vein. It seems to have been written by private lawyers, not the US departments of state or commerce.

This leaked draft caused international outrage, given how explicitly colonial it was.

To try to save face, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent published an op-ed in the Financial Times on February 22 explaining the Trump administration’s plans for Ukraine.

Bessent is a billionaire hedge fund manager who previously worked for the billionaire oligarch George Soros, who is ironically a bugbear of Western conservatives.

Bessent traveled to Ukraine in February to negotiate the agreement with Zelensky.

In his FT article, Bessent explained that, under the deal, the United States will oversee a joint fund with the Ukrainian government. He wrote:

The terms of our partnership propose that revenue received by the government of Ukraine from natural resources, infrastructure and other assets is allocated to a fund focused on the long-term reconstruction and development of Ukraine where the US will have economic and governance rights in those future investments.

The Treasury secretary strongly implied that US corporations will benefit from these investments, writing, “When I was in Kyiv, I met with many American companies that have been on the ground in Ukraine for years”.

Bessent stressed that the “terms of this partnership will mobilise American talent, capital, and high standards”.

In a separate, accompanying article, the Financial Times noted that, in his op-ed, Bessent had conveniently left out how much of Ukraine’s export revenue will be paid to the US.

A draft of the deal obtained by the FT stated that Ukraine’s fund will be set up “with the encumbrance (legal claim) of such revenues in favour of the United States”. The text made it clear that Washington will be given power over reconstruction projects in Ukraine.

This framework is reminiscent of the colonial arrangement that the United States imposed on Iraq, after invading the country in an illegal war of aggression in 2003 and overthrowing its government. The US central bank, the Federal Reserve, administers the money that Iraq receives from selling its crude oil.

Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal stated that his country had agreed to Trump’s mineral deal, two days before Zelensky’s meeting at the White House. It is unclear if the fight changed the status of the agreement.

The other major revelation in Bessent’s FT article was that Zelensky himself had visited Trump Tower in September, just a few weeks before the presidential election. There, in Bessent’s words, “Zelenskyy proposed giving the US a stake in Ukraine’s rare earths elements and critical minerals”.

This was the biggest irony of all: Zelensky had long showed himself to be an obedient vassal of the United States, and he offered Trump some of Ukraine’s natural resources as an incentive to continue arms shipments.

Trump apparently loved the idea, but he wanted total control, not just a little. Now, Trump is demanding to be paid roughly twice the GDP of the country.

The colonial deal that the Trump administration is imposing on Ukraine recalls an infamous quote from the late US imperial strategist Henry Kissinger, who said in the context of Washington’s puppet regime in South Vietnam, “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal”.

The people of Ukraine have learned this lesson the hard way.  https://geopoliticaleconomy.com/2025/03/02/trump-ukraine-us-economic-colony-minerals/

March 10, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | Leave a comment

Jeffrey Sachs: Negotiating a Lasting Peace in Ukraine

 

The time has arrived for diplomacy that brings collective security to Europe, Ukraine, and Russia.

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Mar 06, 2025Common Dreams

There should be little doubt about how a lasting peace can be established in Ukraine. In April 2022, Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of signing a peace agreement in Istanbul, with the Turkish Government acting as mediator. The U.S. and U.K. talked Ukraine out of signing the agreement, and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have since died or been seriously injured. Yet the framework of the Istanbul Process still provides the basis of peace today.


The draft peace agreement (dated April 15, 2022) and the Istanbul Communique (dated March 29, 2022) on which it was based, offered a sensible and straightforward way to end the conflict. It’s true that three years after Ukraine broke off the negotiations, during which time Ukraine has incurred major losses, Ukraine will eventually cede more territory than it would have in April 2022 — yet it will gain the essentials: sovereignty, international security arrangements, and peace.

In the 2022 negotiations, the agreed issues were Ukraine’s permanent neutrality and international security guarantees for Ukraine. The final disposition of the contested territories was to be decided over time, based on negotiations between the parties, during which both sides committed to refrain from using force to change boundaries. Given the current realities, Ukraine will cede Crimea and parts of southern and eastern Ukraine, reflecting the battlefield outcomes of the past three years.

Such an agreement can be signed almost immediately and in fact is likely to be signed in the coming months. As the U.S. is no longer going to underwrite the war, in which Ukraine would suffer yet more casualties, destruction, and loss of territory, Zelensky is recognizing that it’s time to negotiate. In his address to Congress, President Donald Trump quoted Zelensky as saying “Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer.”

The pending issues in April 2022 involved the specifics of security guarantees for Ukraine and the revised boundaries of Ukraine and Russia. The main issue regarding the guarantees involved the role of Russia as a co-guarantor of the agreement. Ukraine insisted that the Western co-guarantors should be able to act with or without Russia’s assent, so as not to give Russia a veto over the Ukraine’s security. Russia sought to avoid a situation where Ukraine and its Western co-guarantors would manipulate the agreement to justify renewed force against Russia. Both sides have a point.

The best resolution, in my view, is to put the security guarantees under the authority of the UN Security Council. This means that the U.S., China, Russia, U.K., and France would all be co-guarantors, together with the rest of the UN Security Council. This would subject the security guarantees to global scrutiny. Yes, Russia could veto a subsequent UN Security Council resolution regarding Ukraine, but it would then face China’s opprobrium and the world’s if Russia were to act arbitrarily in defiance of the will of the rest of the UN.

Regarding the final disposition of borders, some background is very important. Before the violent overthrow of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014, Russia did not make any territorial demands vis-à-vis Ukraine. Yanukovych favored neutrality for Ukraine, opposed NATO membership, and peacefully negotiated with Russia a 20-year lease for Russia’s naval base in Sevastopol, Crimea, home of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet since 1783. After Yanukovych was toppled and replaced by a U.S.-backed, pro-NATO government, Russia moved quickly to retake Crimea, to prevent the naval base from falling into NATO hands. During 2014 to 2021, Russia did not push for annexing any other Ukrainian territory. Russia called for the political autonomy of the ethnic Russian regions of eastern Ukraine (Donetsk and Luhansk) that broke away from Kyiv immediately after Yanukovych was toppled.

The Minsk II agreement was to implement autonomy. The Minsk framework was inspired in part by the autonomy of the ethnic Germany region of South Tyrol in Italy. German Chancellor Angela Merkel knew the South Tyrol experience and viewed it as a precedent for similar autonomy in the Donbas. Unfortunately, Ukraine strongly resisted autonomy for the Donbas, and the U.S. backed Ukraine in rejecting autonomy. Germany and France, which ostensibly were guarantors of Minsk II, stood by silently as the agreement was thrown aside by Ukraine and the United States.

Following six years in which Minsk II was not implemented, during which the U.S.-armed Ukrainian military continued to shell the Donbas in an attempt to subdue and recover the breakaway provinces, Russia recognized Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states on February 21, 2022. The status of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Istanbul process was still to be finalized. Perhaps a return to Minsk II and its actual implementation by Ukraine (recognizing the autonomy of the two regions in the Ukrainian constitution) could have been ultimately agreed. When Ukraine walked away from the negotiating table, alas, the issue was moot. A few months later, on September 30, 2022, Russia annexed the two oblasts as well as two others, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The sad lesson is this. Ukraine’s loss of territory would have been averted entirely but for the violent coup that toppled Yanukovych and brought in a U.S.-backed regime intent on NATO membership. The loss of territory in eastern Ukraine could have been averted had the U.S. pushed Ukraine to implement the UN Security Council-backed Minsk II agreement. The loss of territory in eastern Ukraine could probably have been averted as late as April 2022 in the Istanbul Process, but the U.S. blocked the peace agreement. Now, after 11 years of war since the overthrow of Yanukovych, and as a result of Ukraine’s losses on the battlefield, Ukraine will cede Crimea and other territories of eastern and southern Ukraine in the coming negotiations.

Europe has other interests that it should be negotiating with Russia, notably security for the Baltic States and for European-Russian security arrangements more generally. The Baltic States feel very vulnerable to Russia, understandably so given their history, but they are also gravely and unnecessarily adding to their vulnerability by a stream of repressive measures taken against their ethnic Russian citizenry, including measures to repress the use of the Russian language and measures to cut their citizens’ ties with the Russian Orthodox Church. Baltic state leaders are also provocatively engaging in remarkable Russophobic rhetoric. Ethnic Russians are about 25% of the population of both Estonia and Latvia, and around 5% in Lithuania. Security for the Baltic States should be achieved through security-enhancing measures taken on both sides, including the respect for minority rights of the ethnic Russian populations, and by refraining from vitriolic rhetoric.

The time has arrived for diplomacy that brings collective security to Europe, Ukraine, and Russia. Europe should open direct talks with Russia and should urge Russia and Ukraine to sign a peace agreement based on the March 29 Istanbul Communique and the April 15, 2022 draft peace agreement. Peace in Ukraine should by followed by the creation of a new system of collective security for all of Europe, stretching from Britain to the Urals, and indeed beyond.

March 9, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Trump Pauses All Military Aid to Ukraine

The pause applies to weapons that are already in transit

by Dave DeCamp March 3, 2025,  https://news.antiwar.com/2025/03/03/trump-pauses-all-military-aid-to-ukraine/ 

President Trump has paused all military aid to Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing a senior Pentagon official.

The pause applies to all US military equipment bound for Ukraine that’s not currently in the country, including weapons that are in transit on aircraft and ships or waiting in Poland to be delivered.

The Pentagon official said the US was pausing all military to Ukraine until the country’s leadership demonstrates a good faith commitment to peace. A senior Trump administration official told Fox News, “This is not permanent termination of aid, it’s a pause.”

The move comes a few days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky clashed with President Trump and Vice President JD Vance in the Oval Office, an argument that started after Zelensky questioned the administration’s push for diplomacy with Russia.

News of the pause comes after reports said the Trump administration was holding a meeting on Monday afternoon on the possibility of pausing military aid to Ukraine. Before the meeting, the US had already frozen weapons sales to Ukraine under the State Department’s Foreign Military Financing program, which only accounted for a small portion of the US weapons supply to Ukraine.

While the Trump administration hasn’t approved any new military aid for Ukraine, President Biden signed off on a massive number of arms packages during his final months in office that would take years to deliver.

The aid approved by Biden came in two forms: the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which ships weapons straight from US military stockpiles, and the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), which allows the Pentagon to purchase arms for Ukraine.

March 5, 2025 Posted by | Ukraine, USA, weapons and war | Leave a comment

Zelensky needs to go …been risking nuclear war far too long

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 2 Mar 25

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky is a spectacularly failed leader. He’s failed on every indicator of good governance.

He failed the largely Russian cultured Ukrainians in the Donbas who overwhelmingly voted him for president in 2019. He promised he’d end the war on them by their own government after the 2014 coup toppled elected pro Russian President Victor Yanukovych. Once in office Zelensky caved to the ultra-nationalists who wielded the real power in Kyiv. The war on the Donbas separatist movement escalated under Zelensky. He massed 60,000 elite troops on the Donbas border to complete destruction of the separatist movement. Guess what that provoked February 24, 2022?

He failed by continuing his predecessors’ desire to join NATO, knowing full well Ukraine in NATO crossed a red line Russia viewed as an existential security threat. That made the February 22, 2022 Russian invasion even more inevitable.

Two months into the war he failed to conclude a peace treaty with Russia in April, 2022 that was about to be signed. He allowed US and UK war hawks bully him into rejecting the settlement which would have cost Ukraine nary a square mile of territory. He swallowed whole their delusion he could win the war with US weapons but not US cannon fodder Now he’s lost about 45,000 square miles for caving to his US/UK masters of war..

Worst of all, Zelensky failed the most important responsibility of any leader: do nothing that could risk nuclear annihilation. He’s spent the entire 3 years of war asking, begging, demanding the US give him the weaponry to attack deep inside Russia. He appears oblivious how easily such attacks could trigger nuclear war between the US and Russ

Astoundingly, when an errant Ukrainian missile killed a couple of Poles in Poland, Zelensky claimed that represented a Russian attack on NATO requiring an immediate NATO military response. Hello WWIII. That alone made Zelensky unfit to serve another day as Ukraine leader.

With the US proxy war on Russia lost and Ukraine in ruins, Zelensky’s failed days in power are dwindling. His exit cannot come soon enough.

March 4, 2025 Posted by | politics, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Donald Trump was rude to Zelensky, but he did tell him the hard truths.

Much of what President Trump told Ukraine President Zelensky in their contentious public meeting Friday was valid…and needed to be said to achieve peace. A sampling of the truths Trump told Zelensky:

1. Ukraine must seek immediate ceasefire not more war

2. Why? The war is lost with Zelensky having “no more cards to play” to achieve his unrealistic, indeed delusional war objectives.

3. Only the US can achieve war’s end thru a negotiated peace with Russia. What Trump omitted is that this has always been America’s war simply using Ukraine proxies to fight it.

4. Ukraine is running out of soldiers, relying on old men and conscripts snatched off the street to fight a lost cause.

5. Zelensky could start WWIII with his efforts to keep war going by attacking deep into Russia.

Trump’s comments signaled a near complete break with predecessor Biden’s embrace of the weak, compliant Zelensky to fight the war to weaken Russia and keep it out of the European political economy.

Trump knows the war has nothing to do with Europe or America’s national security interests and must be ended.

If the Oval Office dustup offends people who want this war to continue indefinitely, possibly going nuclear, then by all means be outraged. But if you want to end this lost war utterly destroying Ukraine so US can weaken Russia, then join the peace community in supporting Trump’s peace initiative.

This war has put peoplekind at risk of nuclear annihilation for all 1,100 days since it began. That must end.

March 3, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | 4 Comments

IAEA mission arrives at nuclear plant in Ukraine through Russia

By Reuters, March 2, 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/new-iaea-mission-arrives-russian-held-zaporizhzhia-nuclear-plant-russia-says-2025-03-01/

March 1 (Reuters) – A new monitoring mission from the U.N. nuclear watchdog arrived on Saturday at the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine for the first time through Russian territory, a Russia-installed head of the plant said.

The IAEA rotation came after weeks of delay caused by military activity around the site with each side blaming the other for violating rules to ensure the team’s safe passage to the plant.

“It is fundamentally important that the route passed through the territory of the Russian Federation for the first time,” Yuri Chernichuk, the Russia-installed head of the Zaporizhzhia plant in southeastern Ukraine, said in a video on Telegram.

The arrival of three inspectors, he added, was ensured by Russia’s defence ministry and national guard and followed “intense” consultations between the heads of Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom and IAEA.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. The IAEA could not be reached outside business hours to comment on the Russian statement. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

March 3, 2025 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

US correct to vote against UN resolution solely condemning Russia for Ukraine war

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL, 26 Feb 25

Less than half of the UN’s 193 member states voted for the Ukrainian resolution in the General Assembly solely condemning Russia for invading Ukraine on the third anniversary of the war.

The vote on the non-binding resolution was 93 to 18 with 65 members abstaining.

In an astonishing reversal of previous US policy at the UN on Ukraine, the US joined Russia and 16 other states in opposing the resolution.

Why?

US Ambassador to the UN Dorothy Shea argued that the Ukrainian resolution ignored that the war actually started 11 years earlier with the Russian Ukraine war that ignited after the 2014 coup that toppled democratically elected Ukraine president Victor Yanukovych.

Shea didn’t mention that the US was heavily involved in supporting the coup in order to prevent Ukraine from partnering economically with Russia. Nor did she mention that after the coup the US heavily armed Ukraine to complete the destruction of the Ukrainian separatist movement seeking freedom from Kyiv’s policy of destroying Ukrainian Russian culture in the Donbas. Shea also omitted that 14 years of US efforts to bring Ukraine into NATO crossed a red line for Russia that would inevitably provoke a Russian invasion.

But all of these critical omissions were implicit in the Trump administration’s refusal to continue the Biden administration’s fantasy that President Putin woke up one day in February, 2022 and decided to attack Ukraine unproved.

This was a welcome dose of reality sorely missing from the Biden administration for all two years, eleven months of their proxy war to weaken Russia using Ukrainian proxies to do all the dying.

President Trump is telling the world that this war must end with a settlement based on reality. Ukraine will not join NATO. Ukraine will not get back the oblasts containing Russian cultured Ukrainians seeking relief from endless destruction by their own government. Ukraine will refrain from being a US/NATO Trojan Horse to keep Russia out of the Western Europe political economy. Most importantly, the US and Russia can normalize diplomatic relations and end three years of risking nuclear annihilation from America’s zero sum game approach to the war.

Based on the vote of Ukraine’s one sided resolution putting all the blame on Russia, a majority of UN members agree with the Trump path to peace.

February 28, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Russia, Ukraine, USA | 1 Comment

The IAEA comments on the state of Ukraine’s Nuclear Power Plants

The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant has been relying on a single off-site power line for more than a week now after the other 9 have been taken offline due to the war – this single power line is critical to prevent massive radioactive releases at the site.

At the Chornobyl plant, firefighters are continuing to put out small fires that keep smouldering and spreading on the roof of the reactor shield hit by a Russian drone.

Ukraine’s other nuclear plants have continued to report frequent air raid alarms over the past week due to the presence of drones around the sites.  

https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/pressreleases/update-277-iaea-director-general-statement-on-situation-in-ukraine

February 24, 2025 Posted by | safety, Ukraine | Leave a comment

Hating Trump no reason to oppose Trump Ukraine peace initiative.

Walt Zlotow, West Suburban Peace Coalition, Glen Ellyn IL , 23 Feb 25

Some of my progressive comrades are bombarding social media in opposition to Trump’s peace plan to end the Russo Ukraine war. For the first 2 years, 11 months of America’s proxy war against Russia using Ukrainian cannon fodder, they were largely silent. They were loath to criticize President Biden and Vice President Harris, particularly during a presidential campaign. Their focus was laser like on domestic issues to prevent a return of the despised Trump to the presidency.

Trump not only won, he immediately pivoted to peace in Ukraine. He totally overturned the Biden war playbook. He announced Ukraine (really the US) had lost, must never join NATO, and not get back the Russian leaning Eastern Ukraine Russia annexed.

More. Trump announced a complete reset of the US Russia relationship to include diplomatic engagement and friendly relations with Russia that Biden had jettisoned during his entire term.

More again. Ending the war and reestablishing diplomatic relations will reduce the risk of nuclear war present for every one of the 1,095 days of this senseless war. It makes possible renewing the three nuclear treaties the US abandoned this century, two of them by Trump.

But instead of supporting this astonishing breakthrough, progressives have gone ballistic. They charge dictator wannabe Trump is selling out Ukrainian sovereignty, like Chamberlain did to Czechoslovakia at Munich in 1938. They claim this will allow Russia to recreate the Soviet Union, then march into Western Europe. Preposterous.

In doing so they ignore this war was provoked by Biden to weaken Russia. It would never have resulted in war had Biden honored Russia’s security concerns regarding no Ukraine NATO on Russia’s border.

Worse yet, progressives are blind to the fact that the war was lost on Day One when Biden announced the US would not participate with US military. Why? He wisely advised that would result in WWIII.

The result? Ukraine is on the brink of defeat, having upwards of a million dead or wounded. Over ten million have fled Ukraine for safer climes. Potential draftees are deserting en mass. The economy is on life support. President Zelensky cancelled elections, banned free press, outlawed the Russian Orthodox Church on his march to becoming dictator for the war’s duration. Once it’s over…so is Zelensky.

None of this made a dent in progressives till Trump demanded this madness end and followed thru arranging lightning fast negotiations with Russian leaders to end it. Then progressives surfaced to demonize Trump and his peace initiative. They have joined the most virulent pro war advocates in the Republican Party, the military, the media determined to sabotage the most hopeful development to end further destruction of Ukraine and depletion of US treasure.

Every progressive opposing Trump’s peace initiative enables another 500,000 dead Ukrainians, another $175 billion in squandered US treasure, and no end to Biden’s catastrophic and failed proxy war to weaken Russia.

Ponder that progressives.

February 24, 2025 Posted by | politics international, Ukraine, USA | 3 Comments

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