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.
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?”.