this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2025
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Summary

Ukraine is hesitating to sign a U.S.-backed deal that would grant American companies access to 50% of its rare earth minerals in exchange for continued military support.

President Zelenskyy cited legal concerns and the lack of security guarantees.

The deal, pushed by Trump allies, aims to showcase Ukraine’s value to U.S. interests while reducing reliance on Chinese minerals.

However, Kyiv’s 2021 strategic partnership with the EU complicates negotiations, as European leaders resist surrendering shared resources to Washington. Talks remain ongoing.

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[–] [email protected] 119 points 1 week ago (6 children)

The audacity to frame resource extraction as "aid" would be impressive if it weren't so transparent. Ukraine's rare earth minerals aren't collateral for loans—they’re the spoils of geopolitical brinkmanship, dressed in the rotting corpse of diplomacy.

Trump’s team operates like feudal overlords, demanding tribute from a nation under siege. Those minerals power everything from missiles to smartphones. Calling this a "reimbursement" is like mugging a drowning man and calling it debt collection.

Now they’re floating troop deployments to "guard" these assets? Please. This isn’t peacekeeping—it’s a protection racket, ensuring the extraction pipeline stays open while the propaganda machine spins conquest as charity.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 6 days ago (2 children)

Fuck, everyone has been giving us communists shit for the past 8 decades for explaining this is the exact way that imperialist powers operate in their colonies. Maybe we all will finally understand now that the Ukraine war was never a conflict of Russian expansionism vs Ukrainian national defence, but an imperialist proxy war between US and Russia?

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[–] FlashMobOfOne 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Trump’s team operates like feudal overlords, demanding tribute from a nation under

That's a very apt analogy. I hadn't thought of it that way, but Trump's demands so far remind me of his stupid nonsense about making Mexico pay for his wall back in 2016.

He honestly thinks everyone's just going to lay down.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 week ago

He operates under the assumption that audacity equals strategy, as if shouting demands into the void will make them manifest. The "Mexico will pay for it" fiasco was the prototype: a hollow threat wrapped in nationalist theater. It's not about anyone laying down; it's about how long they can keep up the charade before the cracks show.

The real tragedy is that these tactics aren't even subtle. It's all brute force masquerading as diplomacy, a sledgehammer where a scalpel is needed. People see through it, but the machine churns on, feeding on apathy and short memories. The question isn't whether anyone lays down—it's whether anyone stands up long enough to matter.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ukraine got used to weaken Putin and now the US sweeps in and recoups the cost for free. Ukrainians lose part of their country to Russia and hand over the minerals of the other half to America.

Imagine being Ukrainian and having died for this.

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[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 week ago (1 children)

the 'deal' the diaper is working on between him and ukraine is a sham.

i think the real 'deal' is between him and putin: 'give us (me) half of some of the goodies there and we'll not stand in your way to take the whole thing'

[–] [email protected] 35 points 1 week ago

I agree that the deal is a sham, but I think the goal was to present a deal so obviously unacceptable to Ukraine that they would be bound to refuse and Trump can then point to it and say Ukraine is uncooperative therefore he can refuse to support them any further.

[–] shalafi 17 points 1 week ago (2 children)

What happens if he signs the deal, gets the aid, beats Russia back and reneges? Serious question.

"American warship, go fuck yourself."

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The US already abandoned their promise to protect Ukraine from a Russian invasion after they agreed to give up their nuclear arsenal, so I can't imagine why they would trust us this time especially with a nutjob like Trump at the helm.

[–] FlowVoid 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (5 children)

The US promised they would not invade Ukraine, but they never promised they would protect Ukraine.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Like a reasonable person who sees a proposal with huge future impact - he is likely consulting lawyers ("is this permissible by law?") and other politicians ("is this a good move currently or strategically?").

Then comes time to present counter-proposals. One of them may be "we get considerably more help from Europe and they don't ask for half of the country's minerals - on this background, let's revise assistance and security guarantees upwards".

Trump's current proposal is such a poorly chosen one that one could show it to Xi and ask "for this extreme price, would you reign in your vassal named Putin, and cut exports of anything with a microchip into Russia?".

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