Honestly this is a good opportunity for Ukraine because trump is very easy to manipulate.

First:

Ukraine should say “absolutely!.. but we can’t do any of that until all Russia is gone from Ukrainian soil including Crimea. We wouldn’t want your Rare Earth metals to be attacked by Russians. Also we’ll need to ship them out of our port cities many of which Russia currently occupies in the sea of Azov and Crimea. So give us everything we need to clear out the Russians and we’ll get started on shipping you ore! Also, you want to make sure Ukraine is sovereign at the end of this and that Russia has no control over us because you know Putin won’t honor our deal on Rare Earths for the USA”

Second:

Rare Earth minerals aren’t uncommon, they’re just very sparsely spread over large areas of dirt or water. The hard, dirty, and expensive work of producing Rare Earth metals is the refinement. I’m not seeing any requirement here the Ukraine refines it. This means that Ukraine could fulfill the commitment to trump by shipping raw ore. The only think Ukraine will have to do is shovel dirt right out of the ground and put it in ships on the way to the USA. Any level of concentration would qualify (and again, they’re not rare, just not densely concentrated).

Third:

Much of the military aid Ukraine has received is loans of military gear. Ukraine knows this and is planning on paying this back over many decades. If Ukraine could offer shiploads of dirt as payment, they could get out from under the war debt far earlier than they planned.

Ukraine should absolutely take this deal. It secures their borders, kicks Russia out, keeps the country sovereign, and reduces their war debt. Oh, it will probably also piss off Putin, which is a nice side win.

I actually think this is Zelensky manipulating Trump. From Ukraine’s point of view, this is win-win. They get continued military support on terms that Trump is likely to champion (“$15T in rare earth metals! Take that Jina!”). The rare earth deposits are mostly in Donetsk and Luhansk, so Trump has an incentive to support taking back that territory from Russia. And finally, this will mean post-war investment into rebuilding the bombed out industries in the East.

So in order to protect Ukrainian land, he wants… the minerals from the land… Sounds like surrendering to the USA instead of surrendering to Russia.

They should say “ok”, get the aid, win the war, then refuse to pay. Everyone would love that trumpian tactic “it’s just business, mate”

Ukraine should tell him to go fuck himself.

God, I hope Europe backs Ukraine to the hilt like they’ve been discussing.

I can’t believe this utter reversal. Putin really got his money’s worth out of his orange puppet.

This was already agreed to last year, but Zelenskyy postponed the announcement specifically to appeal to Trump’s vanity. 

Rare earths to begin with. There will be more demands.

The funny thing is that a deal which brings foreign investment to Ukraine can be good for Ukraine even if the minerals are sold on terms very favorable to the USA. I wish Trump didn’t make it sound like extortion but who knows - maybe that’s what gets Republican voters on board.

And then, presumably, sublet them to Russia.

Ukraine should tell Trump that the minerals are at 5 mile increments all along the eastern front

Gonna have to send troops and patriot systems to secure each one

And there it is. This is why Nvidia head met with Trump. Fuck this shit my god someone please tell me what the fuck I can do to stop this shit.

That’s just payment, right? That’s a lot better than nothing.

“Favor for a favor — that’s how we do business. . .” Zelenskyy knows how to handle this.

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Bringing in additional American military support now, getting American development dollars later, adding local Ukrainian jobs, all in exchange for additional Ukrainian tax revenues from mined minerals sounds like a win-win-win-win.