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.
Lol. The US is a fucking failed state that couldn’t even defeat Vietnamese, Afghan, or Iraqi peasants at the peak of their empire, with trillions of dollars in capital… Literally 1000x more capital than their enemy.
Every country needs to grow balls, forge alliances, and tell the US to collectively get fucked. They’re swinging their dick around like they hold the cards, when they’re grossly incompetent, and without the rest of the world playing ball the US is fucking dead in the water. All of their wealth is worthless without the global supply chain. They will collapse in months without us.
Even if Ukraine’s gov fell, it’s likely Russia would be locked in a guerrilla warfare quagmire (like Afghanistan in the 80’s). If the USSR couldn’t defeat a bunch of peasants, why would a state with 1/10th the power be able to defeat Ukraine?
If the EU is smart — and not a bunch of capitalist oligarchies masquerading as “democracies” — they’ll offer asylum and jobs to US scientists, and brain drain the US of what little remaining leverage they have.
Don’t know about the other countries,but Afghanistan is a bit special. Many invaders have tried, and failed. I guess the mountainous terrain doesn’t make it any easier. Seems to me that nobody is capable of conquering Afghanistan. When you hear about another empire trying their luck, you know it’s going to drain their power.
Vietnam has historically been pretty brutal for invaders too. Between the end of the third Chinese domination and the start of the French colonial period, they went almost a thousand years rarely ever losing a war. They even fended the Mongols off
Let me guess, it was the jungle. I recall from history class, that China is protected by a massive jungle on one side, which has kept potential invaders from trying that direction. Maybe the same is true for Vietnam as well.
I assume it must have played a role. The Chinese border with Vietnam, Laos, and Myanmar has some pretty damn big mountains too, which is one of the other classic “invading through this sucks” features
Yeah - the US was just unlucky. They lost these ones + the korean war. But anywhere else they would win. Maybe except in Russia. Or china. Or a few others. But except for that they would win
The US was lucky that Afghanistan didn’t drain all of their money and power. It was already a total disaster, but it could have been even worse.
Well… the US could have won any of those wars, but only by completely wiping them off the map. And even the worst of the presidents wouldn’t have done that (the current one TBD).
Would love Asylum. Scared for my daughter growing up in this country right now. Realistically we’d have a hard time taking it and leaving our families, but I told my wife anything is on the table if our daughter needs it.
What historical event are you referring to?
Finally it’s dawning on the average western progressive
The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
Thanks. That said, those peasants were armed and trained by US forces.
Afghanistan probably