"Ukrainian officials say Kyiv is now ready to sign the agreement on jointly developing its mineral resources, including oil and gas, after...

... the US dropped demands for a right to $500bn in potential revenue from exploiting the resources."

'

"Although the text lacks explicit security guarantees, the officials argued that they had negotiated far more favourable terms and depicted the deal as a way of broadening the relationship with the US to shore up Ukraine's prospects after three years of war.

"The minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the US administration that it's part of a bigger picture," Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister and justice minister who has led the negotiations, told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

A Ukrainian official with knowledge of the matter said that Zelenskyy was planning to travel to Washington on Friday to see Trump and formalise the deal."

;;

Trusting Trump for security guarantees against Putin isn't likely to werk out well for Ukraine.

Most people count their fingers after they shake his tiny hand.

The plot thickens....

"The news comes after the same source told CNN on Monday that Ukraine was ready to agree to a deal that would grant the United States access to its rare earth minerals in return for US involvement in a reconstruction fund for Ukraine. The source said the Americans had resisted security guarantees being included in the draft.

The precise wording regarding Ukraine's security in the latest draft was unclear.

CNN reported Monday, citing a Ukrainian source familiar with the negotiations, that some of the thornier details about the resources deal would be negotiated in subsequent talks, and that the US and Ukrainian presidents might discuss the security guarantees in person."

"President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he'd heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that "it's okay with me, if he'd like to, and he would like to sign it together with me."

Trump called it "a very big deal," adding that it could be worth a trillion dollars. It could be whatever, but it's rare earths and other things."

- should have seen what FDR did to England.

#8 | POSTED BY IAMRUNT

1NumbNut... he appears to be totally incapable of overcoming his Whataboutism Tourette syndrome.

;;

In the news, as it turns out, there's something else going on here.

The 'valuable minerals' were said to be valuable by Russian studies decades ago using antiquated techniques. Also, experts say it could take that long again to extract enough material to make it worthwhile.

Not to mention that transport and facilities that mine the minerals now were thoroughly bombed by Russia. And that the rest of Ukraine is in no shape to handle transportation and facilities.

Prolly Donald intends to sell the rights to Vlad after he gets them from Ukraine, lol.