Summary

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he remains “ready to sign” a US-Ukraine minerals deal despite leaving the White House without an agreement following a contentious meeting with Trump.

Speaking in London after a European leaders’ summit, Zelensky emphasized that their fractious meeting only benefited Putin.

Refusing to discuss territorial concessions, he stated the “best security guarantees are a strong Ukrainian army.”

Responding to calls from Senator Graham that he resign, Zelensky quipped he is “exchangeable for NATO” membership, saying this would mean he had “fulfilled my mission.”

  • wewbull@feddit.uk
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    23 hours ago

    I’m still at a loss what Ukraine would get out of this deal. It’s not weapons

    • snooggums@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      The goal is US security guarantees, as in US military enforcing any ceasefire agreement with Russia.

      I don’t think that guarantee is worth the paper it is written on as long as Trump is in office, but that is the goal.

      • Skiluros@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        Any long-term agreement with any US administration is not worth anything.

        This is not even purely a Trump thing. We saw this with the Budapest Memorandum.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          Taiwan is silently but furiously preparing for us to not help in the event of a Chinese invasion.

    • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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      22 hours ago

      I think it’s really clever actually:

      Zelensky knows Trump secretly - although less and less secretly - roots for Putin. He pretends to offer this deal to save face, but he really doesn’t want to provide any aid to Ukraine, which is probably why he and the couch fucker were so quick to get ill-tampered and call off the negotiations at the White House on Friday: the last thing they want is to find themselves in a position to have to help Ukraine against Putin.

      Zelensky is calling them on their bluff and cornering them: either they don’t sign a deal after all and Trump’s duplicitous dealings will be exposed for all to see, or they do sign a deal and Trump will have to kill Russians in Ukraine, which is bad news for his relationship with Putin.

      • Daelsky@lemmy.ca
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        21 hours ago

        That could be what comes out of it, but I just fear that they sign the papers, companies buy up the land to have rights to mine those minerals and then they wait until Russia wins. Cause if Trump and Putin are buddies, then they could still have those mineral rights after the war in the worst case scenario.

        I can’t believe that we’re talking about scenarios like this when it comes to the USA and supporting Ukraine. Urgh…

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          You’re forgetting a key part here. Ukraine wouldn’t be signing away it’s sovereignty. If the help doesn’t materialize then the mineral wealth doesn’t have to materialize either

        • ExtremeDullard@lemmy.sdf.org
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          21 hours ago

          I have to say, I knew I wasn’t quite old enough to make it to my grave without seeing the beginning of WW3, but the last thing I expected is that it would come from the US turning into a raging fascist dictatorship.

          • Daelsky@lemmy.ca
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            21 hours ago

            Totally. The world order after ww2 is being destroyed by themselves in front of us.

    • Today@lemmy.world
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      22 hours ago

      The fake plan is that US businesses would be in Ukraine processing the minerals and that would be a deterrent.

      • Daelsky@lemmy.ca
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        21 hours ago

        In theory that’s not too far fetched. But they are already American companies operating in Ukraine and that has never stopped Russia from bombing Ukraine. I doubt it works as a deterrent.

    • unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de
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      22 hours ago

      Even weapons would be worthless. All US weapons systems have remote kill switches.

      They said that a US administration could put restrictions on kit (read equipment) from the US and that if countries are “deemed not to be doing what you are told you will suddenly find out missiles won’t fire and planes won’t fly. You have got to be careful.”

      https://xcancel.com/prestonstew_/status/1895160295032598549

      This is a typical “anonymous sources say” type article, but its believable and in line with industry standards even for less critical equipment like trucks and tractors.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          13 hours ago

          The F-35 isn’t likely to have this problem as it’s a joint project. Any kill switch software would be evident to the project members.

        • Docus@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          We already have, the French rafale is pretty good. They just aren’t made in sufficient numbers and you can’t ramp that up in a week

    • Sceptiksky@leminal.space
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      17 hours ago

      It it was a fair deal, investment from the US to build more infrastructures, doubling their investment capacity to mine stuff.