@Distant Lover You put a dislike on my first post in this thread. Sept. 6th 2022

Funny how this is going to turn out now.

 

It wasn’t Trump that did this to the Ukraine. It was Bush, Obama and Biden that walked the Ukrainians into the prop.
Americans breaking treaties and threatening to move missiles closer to Russia than was bargained for.
Suggesting the Ukraine could become a NATO member. Obama turning a blind eye to the fascists in the parliament.
Americans and Ukrainians fucked around and now find out. The USA would have reacted as heavily, most likely more so had the situation been reversed. Instead sending weapons, the US should have paid for land lost.

 

The Ukraine NATO membership was rejected years ago because the government was considered too corrupt and unstable...

Nothing has changed....

 

Zelenskyy agrees to tentative Trump minerals deal, plans to visit DC this week: report
Deal would allow US access to 'strategic minerals'
By Andrea Margolis
Published February 25, 2025 4:27pm EST


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has agreed to a draft of a minerals deal with the White House on Tuesday, according to reports.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that the Ukrainian leader plans to travel to D.C. on Friday to meet with President Donald Trump after the officials agreed to the terms of the deal.

The pact, which would involve giving the U.S. access to natural resources in exchange for America’s support of Ukraine amid its war with Russia, was days in the making. Trump said on Friday that his administration was "pretty close" to striking a deal, and on Monday, he hinted that a meeting between him and Zelenskyy was imminent.

"It'll be a deal with rare earths and various other things. And, he would like to come, as I understand it, here to sign it. And that would be great with me," Trump said. "I think they then have to get it approved by their council or whoever might approve it, but I'm sure that will happen."


Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump have tentatively agreed to a minerals deal. (Reuters)

Since his Jan. 20 inauguration, Trump has prioritized recouping the cost of U.S. aid to Ukraine by gaining access to Ukrainian resources, including titanium, iron and uranium. U.S. aid to the war-torn country has totaled tens of billions of dollars since February 2022.

That commitment has led to tension between him and Zelenskyy, and Trump ridiculed the politician as a "modestly successful comedian" in a Truth Social post last week.

"A Dictator without Elections, Zelenskyy better move fast or he is not going to have a Country left," Trump’s post reads. "In the meantime, we are successfully negotiating an end to the War with Russia, something all admit only ‘TRUMP,’ and the Trump Administration, can do. Biden never tried, Europe has failed to bring Peace, and Zelenskyy probably wants to keep the ‘gravy train’ going."

"I love Ukraine, but Zelenskyy has done a terrible job, his Country is shattered, and MILLIONS have unnecessarily died – And so it continues….."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent previously lauded the potential pact in a Sunday interview on "Sunday Morning Futures."

"The first part of this is a partnership between Ukraine and the U.S. that involves strategic minerals, energy and state-owned enterprises, where we set up a partnership, and we are only looking forward," Bessent said.

"We make money if the Ukrainian people make money, and I believe that with the United States of America, our businesses are willing to come in and provide capital that we can accelerate the Ukrainian growth trajectory and take in substantial monies for the U.S. taxpayers and get the Ukrainian economy on a great growth trajectory."

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was open to cooperating with the U.S. if Trump signals interest in mining minerals in Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.

"Russia is one of the undisputed leaders in terms of reserves of these rare and rare-earth metals," Putin said during an interview on Russian state television. "These are quite capital-intensive investments, capital-intensive projects. We would be happy to work together with any foreign partners, including American ones."

 

Ukraine's Zelenskyy thought he'd look like a tough guy. He had another thing coming from Trump and Vance
President Zelenskyy came to Washington thinking he would receive another blank check. This was a mistake.
By Victoria Coates
Published March 1, 2025




The American people did not re-elect President Donald J. Trump to continue the failed Biden-Harris policy of "as much as it takes for as long as it takes" for the Ukraine war. On the contrary, President Trump campaigned on ending the killing and resolving the conflict, and he received a broad political mandate for this approach.

While he has not advocated for cutting Ukraine off, he has argued strongly for increased NATO investment in defense to reduce the burdens on the United States and effectively deter Vladimir Putin from further adventurism in Europe.

It has also not gone unnoticed that Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelenskyy has allowed himself to be used as a Democrat political prop for the last three years. He came to Washington on demand to lobby for successive packages of emergency aid stuffed into the bloated Biden spending bills that have layered unprecedented debt onto the American people and threatened the prosperity of the greatest economy on earth.

Zelenskyy even went so far as to participate in what was essentially a campaign photo-op during the general election when he flew to Pennsylvania, a key swing state, in September to tour a missile factory with Democrat Gov. Josh Shapiro and didn’t invite a single Republican to participate.

As part of his plan to come to a negotiated settlement to the war, President Trump even offered the Ukrainians a mineral-rights deal that they had wanted for some time that would have both made them money and made them more secure due to the U.S. engagement with the country.

This engagement would have acted as an actual deterrent to further Russian aggression that might endanger a NATO member if Putin knew that attacking Ukraine would also be attacking American assets—and would have been far more effective than any "security guarantee" on a piece of paper.

The mineral-rights deal would also have been a good deal for U.S. taxpayers who to date have had no prospects of a return on the hundreds of billions of dollars they’ve provided to Ukraine during the war as they would have participated in the profits from the sale of Ukrainian natural resources.

The United States would also be the favored buyer for these resources, including the rare earths and minerals needed for the high-tech manufacturing that is critical for maintaining a strategic edge over China. If it can be revived, this deal could be a model for a new approach to American "soft power" that would actually expand U.S. influence and prosperity, not dispense charity and impose a woke liberal social agenda, as was the case under USAID.

Despite President Trump clearly signaling his new approach to Ukraine in their previous engagements, President Zelenskyy came to Washington this week thinking he would receive the same unquestioning adulation—and blank check—he had gotten on his visits during the Biden-Harris administration. In the Oval Office press engagement, Zelenskyy seemed condescending to America’s Commander in Chief and entitled to his unquestioning support and deference. This was a mistake.

Instead of keeping any disagreements behind closed doors, he seriously mis-read President Trump and Vice President Vance, blew the mineral-rights deal for the Ukrainian people, and did serious reputational damage to himself in front of the American people. Rather offering a simple "thank you" he showed up with a chip on his shoulder and additional demands. Zelenskyy may have thought that the fight he picked would make him look like a tough guy, but in fact such disrespect is not going to endear him to the taxpayers who have committed hundreds of billions of their hard-earned dollars to his country and who voted for Donald Trump.

We all pray for peace. Hopefully President Zelenskyy will take President Trump up on his offer and return to Washington for a properly respectful discussion when and if he’s ready to end this war.

 

Well done Norwegian fuel company Haltbakk Bunkers who have announced it will cease supplying fuel to U.S military forces in Norway and American ships docking in their ports. FAFO

 

These guys are playing with fire...it's not a matter of business but of human survival...one cannot snatch your country to defend you from aggression
Trump is playing a very dangerous Emperor role...nothing to do with make America great again but with make trumps business great as ever.

 

Angry at Trump for actually trying to do something to end the war and engage both sides????

I don't see anyone in Europe doing anything to end the killing....The vegetable biden certainly wasn't willing or able to do anything.... Endlessly funding a conflict killing thousands of people for a war that the Ukraine can not win is insanity....

Trump is being realistic in urging them to settle before they lose more... There's more outrage at Trump's frank talk to Zelensky than any voice of outrage over the number of people getting killed and endlessly funding of a war that could spread beyond the Ukraine's borders if there is a wrong move.

Europe is in no position to be judgemental.... They've under funded their militaries for years and relied on the US to fund NATO and protect them. They served as no deterrent to Russia and did nothing to stop the invasion of the Ukraine and they are doing nothing to end the war. Europe has relied on Russia for oil & gas which largely funded this war for Russia.

So go ahead and stop selling the US military fuel, we will just pack up and leave..... Then you (Europe) will be complaining how we abandoned you...

 

You’re getting a bit fired up. Stick on some Fox News to help self sooth.

 

Zelensky is a petulant little mongrel..... If he is representing Ukraine and the rest are like him, I don’t know why the US supported them for so long.

Keep in mind that before 1991 the Ukraine also had nukes aimed at the USA.

With allies like the Ukraine, one doesn't need enemies.....

 

Renege on what???

A "deal" is not a treaty.... Conman Zelensky has now reneged on two "deals" with the US on mineral rights...

Oh and do show me where in this so called "deal" the US is required to unlessly fund a war in the Ukraine?

 

10 bad takeaways from the Zelensky blow-up
Ukrainian leader boxed himself - and his country - in with petulant White House display
By Victor Davis Hanson
Published March 2, 2025


Friday's extraordinary Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy went off the rails, leaving hopes for a U.S.-brokered peace deal between Russia and Ukraine in question. Here are some reasons why things went wrong, and where it leaves efforts to end the war.

1. Zelenskyy does not grasp—or deliberately ignores—the bitter truth: Those with whom he feels most affinity (Western globalists, the American Left, the Europeans) have little power in 2025 to help him. And those whom he obviously does not like or seeks to embarrass (as with his Scranton, Penn. campaign-like visit in September 2024) alone have the power to save him. For his own sake, I hope he is not being "briefed" by the Obama-Clinton-Biden gang to confront Trump, given their interests are not really Ukraine’s as they feign.

2. Zelenskyy acts as if his agenda and ours are identical. So, he keeps insisting that he is fighting for us despite our two-ocean-distance that he mocks. We do have many shared interests with Ukraine, but not all by any means: Trump wants to "reset" with Russia and triangulate it against China. He seeks to avoid a 1962 DEFCON 2-like crisis over a proxy showdown in proximity to a nuclear rival. And he sincerely wants to end the deadlocked Stalingrad slaughterhouse for everyone’s sake.

3. The Europeans (and Canada) are now talking loudly of a new muscular antithesis, independent of the U.S. Promises, promises—given that would require Europeans to prune back their social welfare state, frack, use nuclear, stop the green obsession, and spend 3-5% of their GDP on defense. The U.S. does not just pay 16% of NATO’s budget, but also puts up with asymmetrical tariffs that result in a European Union trade surplus of $160 billion, plays the world cop, patrolling sea-lanes and deterring terrorists and rogue states that otherwise might interrupt Europe’s commercial networks abroad, as well as de facto including Europe under a nuclear umbrella of 6,500 nukes.

4. Zelenskyy must know that all of the once-deal-breaking impediments to peace have been settled. Ukraine is now better armed than most NATO nations, but will not be in NATO, and no president has or will ever supply Ukraine with the armed wherewithal to take back the Donbass and Crimea. So, the only two issues are a) how far will Putin be willing to withdraw to his 2022 borders and b) how will he be deterred? The first is answered by a commercial sector/tripwire, joint Ukrainian-US-Europe resource development corridor in Eastern Ukraine, coupled with a Korea-like DMZ; the second by the fact that Putin, unlike his 2008 and 2014 invasions, has now incurred a million dead and wounded to a Ukraine that will remain thusly armed.

5. What are Zelenskyy’s alternatives without much U.S. help—wait for a return of the Democrats to the White House in four years? Hope for a rearmed Europe? Pray for a Democratic House and a third Vindman-like engineered Trump impeachment? Or swallow his pride, return to the White House, sign the rare-earth minerals deal, invite in the Euros (are they seriously willing to patrol a DMZ?), and hope Trump can warn Putin, as he did successfully between 2017-21, not to dare try it again?

6. If there is a cease-fire, a commercial deal, a Euro ground presence, and influx of Western companies into Ukraine, would there be elections? And if so, would Zelenskyy and his party win? And if not, would there be a successor transparent government that would reveal exactly where all the Western financial aid money went?

7. Zelenskyy might see a model in Netanyahu. The Biden Administration was far harder on him than Trump is on Ukraine, suspending arms shipments, demanding cease-fires, prodding for a wartime, bipartisan cabinet, hammering Israel on collateral damage—none of which Westerners have demanded of Zelenskyy. Yet Netanyahu managed a hostile President Biden, kept Israel close to its patron, and, when visiting, was gracious to his host. Netanyahu certainly would never before the global media have interrupted and berated a host and patron president in the White House.

8. If Ukraine has alienated the U.S., what then is its strategic victory plan? Wait around for more Euros? Hold off an increasingly invigorated Russian military? Cede more territory? What, then, exactly are Zelenskyy’s cards he seems to think form a winning hand?

9. If one views carefully all the 50-minute tape, most of it was going quite well—until Zelenskyy started correcting Vance firstly, and Trump secondly. By Ukraine-splaining to his hosts, and by his gestures, tone, and interruptions, he made it clear that he assumed that Trump was just more of the same compliant, clueless moneybags Biden waxen effigy. And that was naïve for such a supposedly worldly leader.

10. March 2025 is not March 2022, after the heroic saving of Kyiv—but three years and 1.5 million dead and wounded later. Zelenskyy is no longer the international heartthrob with the glamorous entourage. He has postponed elections, outlawed opposition media and parties, suspended habeas corpus and walked out of negotiations when he had an even hand in spring 2022 and apparently even now when he does not in spring 2025.

Quo vadis, Volodymyr?

 

Us has military bases all over Europe if your concern is money then Us should retire all that stuff including strategic atomic bombs ...all this has grant Us interest in the Eu geographical land since 1945
All these countries have built their defence on these bases
Now that trump's Ai algorithm is suggesting to change routes and let European to their destiny seems to me a bit Betrayal

 

The US won't be retiring it's military positions overseas.
Our interests around the world still require a military presence.

It would seem what Trump is doing is saying that the sugar daddy era has ended and it's time for our allies to learn that freedom isn't free.

 

The United States is directly responsible for this war starting in the first place.

The United States is responsible for many of the wars in the region, including the one in Georgia.

The United States has undertaken to aggravate and antagonize Russia endlessly, they play stupid games with sovereign nations, and then have the nerve to blame those nations for playing their game when they get checked. And now, they’re dropping their toys and going home.

That’s it, that’s all.

 

USA has a long history of betraing it s alies. Last example is Afganistan,
Being us enemy is dangerous But Being US freind is even more dangerous.

 

I guess this a live example how us politic was made towards natives. First you give a grunt, and then you say it was a loan. Poor natives Americans this how you cheated them for 250 years. I always said USA priffit on war, death, n killing. And then you say y