 "US President Donald Trump. File Image/Reuters")
For two years, the United States was the main backer of Ukraine, but that has now changed.
Under President Donald Trump, the United States looks forward to turn Ukraine into a colony with near-complete control of its natural resources and decision-making for perpetuity, according to a proposal rejected by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Earlier this month, Trump said that he has a plan to ensure continued assistance to Ukraine in the war with Russia. In lieu of weapons and other aid, he said that the United States should acquire Ukraine’s natural resources , such as uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite, etc. While Zelenskyy had also proposed something similar last year, Trump’s proposal would reduce Ukraine to a US colony instead of making it an equal partner, according to the details of the plan reported by The Daily Telegraph.
Following a meeting with US Vice President JD Vance in which the proposal was discussed, Zelenskyy rejected it and said there was nothing in it for Ukraine .
The proposal did not have any security guarantees for Ukraine and Zelenskyy told Associated Press he rejected it as “it is not ready to protect us, our interest”.
“For me is very important the connection between some kind of security guarantees and some kind of investment,” said Zelenskyy.
How Trump plans to turn Ukraine into US colony
Trump has claimed that the United States has granted up to $500 billion to Ukraine and the country needs to pay back the amount. He has pitched the natural resources proposal as a way for the payback.
The Telegraph reported that Trump’s proposal does not just include rare earths but also seeks US stakes in Ukraine’s ports and other infrastructure and oil and gas.
The proposal seeks to establish a joint investment fund through which the United States will take 50 per cent of recurring revenues received by Ukraine from extraction of resources, 50 per cent of the financial value of “all new licences issued to third parties” for the future monetisation of resources, and a right of first refusal on for the purchase of exportable minerals for all future licences, according to The Telegraph.
Impact Shorts
View AllUnder the proposal, the deals will be governed by New York law, not Ukraine’s law, and the United States will have sovereign immunity and acquire near total control over most of Ukraine’s commodity and resource economy, as per the newspaper.
The newspaper reported that the proposed fund “shall have the exclusive right to establish the method, selection criteria, terms, and conditions” of all future licences and projects.
Trump corners Ukraine, rewards Russia
Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, who has reported the proposal, noted hat Trump’s terms “amount to the US economic colonisation of Ukraine, in legal perpetuity”.
While Trump had long berated the Zelenskyy for emptying US coffers and criticised the US support to Ukraine, his stand on the Russian war on Ukraine has rattled Europe . He has so far kept Ukraine and Europe out of the loop and has engaged directly with Russia. There are fears that he is setting the stage to force Ukraine into a deal that will essentially amount to a Russian victory.
Trump has already said that the natural resources proposal is a ’take it or leave it’ offer. He told Fox News in an interview that Ukraine may either make a deal or “they may be Russian someday”.
Evans-Pritchard, the World Economy Editor of The Telegraph, noted that Trump is seeking reparations from Ukraine that countries often seek from aggression nations for damaged caused by them, such as those sought from Germany after World War I. He said that Trump is forcing Ukraine to chose between territorial violation by Russia and economic violation by the United States.
Trump’s demand is iron-fist coercion by a neo-imperial power against a weaker nation with its back to the wall, and all for a commodity bonanza that exists chiefly in Trump’s head," noted Evans-Pritchard.