KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A contentious Trump administration proposal to give the U.S. $500 billion worth of profits from Ukraine’s rare earth minerals as compensation for its wartime assistance to Kyiv has been taken off the table, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday, indicating a more equitable deal is in the works.

Zelenskyy had earlier declined a U.S. draft agreement on exploitation of his country’s valuable minerals such as lithium used in the aerospace, defense and nuclear industries because it did not contain security guarantees and came with the $500 billion price tag.

“The question of $500 billion is no longer there,” Zelenskyy told a news conference at a forum of government officials in Kyiv marking the three-year anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said considering aid as a debt to be repaid would be a “Pandora’s box” that would set a precedent requiring Kyiv to reimburse all its backers.

“We do not recognize the debt,” Zelenskyy said. “It will not be in the final format of the agreement.”

No further details were given on the state of negotiations. Ukraine has insisted on security guarantees that it needs to deter any potential Russian aggression in the future.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Ukraine should just do what Russia did to them and what America does under Trump. Back out of the treaty at a later date.

    • doodledup@lemmy.world
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      39 minutes ago

      Don’t be. I feel bad for you and those who voted against Trump. It’s probably going to take a whole generation for the US to get a good reputation and friends in Europe and Canada again. China has a better reputation here than the US. Very sad. But it’s not your fault! Make your next vote count and please make sure it doesn’t get any worse. We all know where that got us in Europe when Germany had a similar situation.

  • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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    22 hours ago

    I hope whatever Zelensky and his team are considering, if they really are seriously considering anything, is to Ukraine’s advantage, and not merely a concession in the hope of solidifying US support.

    • LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      22 hours ago

      I’m disgusted that the US would abandon its former ally and instead extort them for mineral rights, but here we are m.

      • Idontopenenvelopes@lemmy.world
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        20 hours ago

        Don’t forget the Budapest memorandum, US is supposed to be a guarantor of Ukrainian peace, after Ukraine gave up its nukes.

        US has shown it’s accords and agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on.

            • Aurenkin@sh.itjust.works
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              18 hours ago

              I’m pissed off as well, but unfortunately I don’t think it’s quite that simple. Even under Biden the US failed to uphold their guarantee imo. Granted it was miles better than the insane shit happening right now though but the same lesson ultimately applies.

              • realitista@lemm.ee
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                4 hours ago

                As much as I would have liked to see The guarantee was far from iron clad. I believe the only security guarantee was this one:

                "Seek immediate Security Councilaction to provide assistance to the signatory if they “should become a victim of an act of aggression or an object of a threat of aggression in which nuclear weapons are used”.

                Via Wikipedia

              • LadyMeow@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                17 hours ago

                Yeah for sure, but at least we had a chance of forcing the democrats to do something better. Now, we have to deal with a fucking coup, and all the US allies will suffer for it.

        • marcos@lemmy.world
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          19 hours ago

          The US and Russia. Both were supposed to guarantee Ukrainian peace…

          Goes to show you how much you can trust foreign powers.

  • shoulderoforion@fedia.io
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    19 hours ago

    I don’t know how the leader of the Free World, Zelensky, can make any deal at all with the Fascist leader of The United States, Donald Trump, there is no mechanism on earth which can secure it’s gurantees, no court or cop that can make The United States live up to any agreements it makes. The only thing that stops Trump from landing US tropps in the half of Ukraine that Trump hasn’t already agreed with Russia they retain immediately, is UK & French troops that march in to create a human bullwark that Trump is too afraid to fire on. That’s it. Maybe Zelensky is just buying time to see if Europe will get it’s shit together.

    I bet they don’t, nothing Europe has ever done, has ever been this sort of heroic, ever. I think Europe will cauterize Ukraine, end it’s financial and military hardware support, to concentrate on it’s own borders, now that it’s defense needs to be against both The United States and Russia.