Even former Trump VP Mike Pence is having none of it.
Trumps a fuckin peanut. Elon can get in the bin aswell. What a shit show
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Follow up, the minerals deal is yet to be signed, although some headlines are saying Zelensky will cave in. Meanwhile Macron has flown to Washington to show a united front on the “peace process”
I wonder how long it will take to turn on the Russian gas that flows through Ukraine and beyond. It was turned off in January I think ( could be wrong ). Also just as an aside the EU still spends a shitload on Russian gas and oil as well as the American gas they get. Those sanctions really bite hard…
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While the final terms of the deal are not clear, a draft agreement discussed on Tuesday no longer included the demand that Ukraine contribute $500 billion to a fund owned by the United States. It also did not include a request that Ukraine pay back the United States twice the amount on any future American aid — a demand that Mr. Zelensky had compared to imposing a long-term debt on Ukraine.
Instead, the draft agreement said Ukraine would contribute to a fund half of its revenues from the future monetization of natural resources, including critical minerals, oil and gas. The United States would own the maximum financial interest in the fund allowed under American law, though not necessarily all. And the fund would be designed to reinvest some revenues into Ukraine.
The United States would also commit to supporting Ukraine’s future economic development.
wonder if there’s any military aid stipulated as well
Trump has a literal lifetime of proof that his word doesn’t mean shit and any agreement with him isn’t worth the paper it’s written on. Even before the now irrefutable fact he’s a Russian asset, he is nothing but a wannabe gangster.
Whether it’s stiffing the little guy contractors and forcing them to take cents in the dollar on his developments, threatening tariffs on allies and neighbours because he doesn’t understand the difference between trade deficits and subsidies and has now decided to backtrack on trade agreements he himself signed in his first term, or whether it’s outright extortion and trying to milk TikTok for 50% of it’s market value for a “permit”.
The EU to arrive stat on a white stallion with a security deal that will actually be honoured, that doesn’t rewrite the terms of aid already provided, and doesn’t take advantage of Ukraine please. 
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Nothing is free in geopoltics. 
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There’s a signing ceremony at the end of the week. I guess we find out then.
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Confirmed there’s no security guarantees, more financial aid etc. Trump has already said that Europe needs to provide security guarantees. Although it’s seesawing in all directions at the moment. At one point he’s acting as though Ukraine should just give up, then next second, he’s saying Russia will need to make territorial concessions. After that, he’s suggested Ukraine doesn’t need to be part of the discussions… It’s just fucking mental watching all this. There’s also talk that the amount of rare earth minerals in Ukraine is vastly over stated.
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Art of the deal, baby
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NY Times are reporting that Ukraine’s revenue from natural resource royalties last year was $1.1 billion. That’s not the hundreds of billions that Trump wants.
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Take a few billion just to get to the point of being able to refine that stuff anyway. Plus it’s in the Eastern part of the country where all the fighting is. The war has to good and finished to even go in a have a look, probably have out of date information personally about what may or may not be there.
There will definitely be a really big bunch of heavy metals all over the Eastern states at the moment. Maybe that’s what’s confused Trump? He’s been told there will be a heavy metals issue in Ukraine and he wants to bring them all back!
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I hear Metal Is Big In The Baltic States.
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Scandinavia.
A certain Scandinavian band likes to smash household appliances for percussion, as well.
Metallica would make a great name for a mining company.
Read a really interesting article yesterday about the use of Russian glide bombs. Last year, Russia made a huge use of glide bombs to hit Ukrainian positions with an ok degree of accuracy. They’re accurate, but nowhere near as good as the NATO ones. But they were used to some amazingly great effect to hit Ukrainian positions from distance, before Russian troops moved in. They were the cause of a large number of Russian gains throughout the frontlines.
Now though, they’re saying that Ukraine has almost completely nullified that advantage. The entire frontline is so saturated with radio jamming, that they stop operating correctly and rarely hit close to the target. The same isn’t for Ukrainian glide bombs. There’s a difference in that NATO uses GPS which is harder to jam, but the Russian system is almost archaic and very easy to jam. On top of that, Ukrainian glide bombs have internal systems designed to keep them on target without the need for radio connections, to which the Russians don’t have.
In short, they’re saying that Russia needs up to 4x the number of bombs to increase success, compared to last year. While the bombs aren’t expensive, they’re delivered by fighters, which means 4 jets are required where 1 was fine. Considering wear and tear and a limited number of jets that can be in the air at any one time, it’s completely nullified Russia’s main advantage on the front.
There’s also talk about localized counterattacks being successful around Pokrovsk, with the front their essentially being stagnant for a while now.
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