.

According to Trump, his administration is "pretty close" to striking a deal with Ukraine for rights to access its natural resources in exchange for the United States’ billions of dollars in support for the country against Russia.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declared, after meeting with Zelensky :

« Trump is creating a "win-win" partnership between the United States and Ukraine. His vision is to bring the Ukrainian people and the American people closer together economically, show the Ukrainian people that we support them, show the American people that the money that is going into Ukraine, that there is going to be a return, that there's going to be a long-term partnership. »

Nearly $8 trillion of Ukraine’s mineral resources, about 53 per cent of the country’s total, are contained in the four regions Putin illegally annexed in September 2022, and of which his army occupies a considerable swathe.

That includes Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, though Kherson holds little value in minerals.

The Crimean Peninsula, illegally annexed and occupied by Putin’s forces in 2014, also holds roughly $210 billion worth of minerals.
The region of Dnipropetrovsk, which borders the largely occupied regions of Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia and is surrounded by an advancing Russian army, contains an additional $3.5 trillion in mineral resources.

Russian difficulties with major military operations seem likely to preclude a serious attempt to take the region but mining operations in the area would be perilous with Moscow’s soldiers so close.

Other ores are well within the sites of Russia’s forces. One lithium ore on the outskirts of a settlement called Shevchenko in Donetsk is less than 10 miles from the town of Velyka Novosilka, recently captured by Putin’s troops.

If the deal does go through it will be interesting to see if Trump manages to persuade Putin to allow the US and Ukraine to extract the rare earth and other minerals from the Russian-occupied annexed territories.

Maybe they won’t be just two but three contractors feasting off the beast.

There’s safety in numbers … so they say !

.

‘Completely Unacceptable’ – Lavrov Rejects Proposed European Troop Deployments to Ukraine
http://www.kyivpost.com/post/47359

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday decried Western proposals to send troops to Ukraine to maintain a potential peace deal, calling it “completely unacceptable.”

Speaking to reporters after the high-stakes talks with top US diplomats in Riyadh on ending Moscow’s Ukraine invasion, Lavrov rejected all proposals of foreign troop deployments to Ukraine, NATO or not."

European Leaders Draft Peacekeeping Plan for Ukraine With U.S. Forces as ‘Backstop’
http://www.wsj.com/world/europe/european-leaders-draft-peacekeeping-plan-for-ukraine-with-u-s-forces-as-backstop-0dda78bc

They're just trying to drag the US into a hot war.
Russia's not going to go for it, and I'll be surprised if Trump will either after he and Putin meet, but we'll see.

Time to give it a rest. What a few nameless keyboard warriors think about anything is not going to make one iota of difference to what Donald Trump, Putin, Zelenskyy etc do or don’t do.

"Other ores are well within the sites of Russia’s forces. "

Yep, a lot of the known reserves are within the war zone. But there's also a massive amount well outside that region, spreading across Ukraine to near the Polish border.

But ya gotta laugh. If the deposits were inaccessible, then the US wouldn't be bothering to go after them. But they are because they are.

Meanwhile silly old AC now denies that Russia sent an army to try to take Kiev in the early days of the war, said army being completely defeated and forced to retreat in abject disarray. Re-writing history to suit what you want to be true is never a good look.

Just to remind... its worthwhile pondering why the talks are being held in Riyad and why only the three biggest oil producers are involved.

world opinions do matter, especially in politics, alliances,
and funding. Not to mention global standing.

mhaze, I'm not going to waste my time arguing with you over paid propaganda you've filled your head with.

Diplomacy Watch: Did Boris Johnson help stop a peace deal in Ukraine?
http://responsiblestatecraft.org/2022/09/02/diplomacy-watch-why-did-the-west-stop-a-peace-deal-in-ukraine/

"A recent piece in Foreign Affairs revealed that Kyiv and Moscow may have had a tentative deal to end the war all the way back in April."

>>Russia and Ukraine may have agreed on a tentative deal to end the war in April, according to a recent piece in Foreign Affairs.

“Russian and Ukrainian negotiators appeared to have tentatively agreed on the outlines of a negotiated interim settlement,” wrote Fiona Hill and Angela Stent. “Russia would withdraw to its position on February 23, when it controlled part of the Donbas region and all of Crimea, and in exchange, Ukraine would promise not to seek NATO membership and instead receive security guarantees from a number of countries.”<<

Fiona Hill (presidential advisor)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiona_Hill_(presidential_advisor)

Impeachment inquiry testimony

>>A request by U.S. President Donald Trump to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate Joe Biden and his son sparked the scandal.

On October 14, 2019, responding to a subpoena, Hill testified in a closed-door deposition for ten hours before a committee of the United States Congress as part of the impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump during his first impeachment. Some Republicans questioned the credibility of her testimony, including Connie Mack IV, who described Hill as a "George Soros mole infiltrating the national-security apparatus".<<

Putin publicly shows draft of ‘peace treaty’ signed by Russia-Ukraine in 2022
http://www.livemint.com/news/world/putin-publicly-shows-draft-of-peace-treaty-signed-by-russia-ukraine-in-2022-watch-11687136116863.html

Man.. I really don't know why you continually double down on stupid.
You know damn well I've been paying attention to this conflict since day dot.