[tomder55]

Trump played the art of the deal on Zelinsky .He ranted and called him a dictator and made an absurd demand that Ukraine forfeit 50% of it's rare earth minerals for US security guarantees. Zelinsky of course rejected the proposal .

Today it was announced that Zelinsky had agreed to a mineral deal with the US after Trump's demand of a $half trillion guaranteed revenue was taken off the table

Although the text lacks explicit security guarantees, the officials argued that they had negotiated far more favourable terms and depicted the deal as a way of broadening the relationship with the U.S. to shore up Ukraine’s prospects after three years of war.
“The minerals agreement is only part of the picture. We have heard multiple times from the U.S. administration that it’s part of a bigger picture,” Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and justice minister who has led the negotiations, told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

Ukraine agrees minerals deal with United States | Financial Post

Although there is no explicit security guarantee there is an implicit one unstated . There has to be a secure peace for the deal to be of any value . Without it the deal is not worth the paper it is written on.

What will it take to make it work? Russian cooperation . Make money not war .

[tomder55]

Hmm maybe I have had this whole thing wrong. I thought it was about buffer zones between the west and Russia . But could this be like the wars of the 1st 2 decades of this century just a war for resources ? The misnamed GWOT was and is about oil and gas. Was this decade's wars about rare earths ?

Maybe . Hours after Trump and Zelinsky came to an understanding about rare earth resource development in Ukraine ;and Russia's counter proposal ; the EU has pitched their own proposal .

Europe's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné said he'd pitched the rival proposal to Ukrainian officials he met in Kyiv during a visit by the European Commission to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
"Twenty-one of the 30 critical materials Europe needs can be provided by Ukraine in a win-win partnership," Séjourné said, according to AFP.

EU offers its own ‘win-win’ minerals deal to Ukraine – POLITICO

War for oil ;War for rare earth minerals .......... what's the difference? Follow the money .

Whenever I think I am too cynical I find I am not cynical enough

[tomder55]

and just like that ;the US is about to have boots on the ground.

But I felt very foolish, and I said, well, we want something for our efforts beyond what you would think would be acceptable. We said rare earth, they have very good rare earth minerals, as you know, we are looking for rare earth all the time. Rare earth is called rare for a reason. And we have a lot. When we made a deal where our money is secure, where we can start digging and doing what we have to do.
But it’s also good for them because you have an American presence at the site. And the American presence will keep a lot of bad actors out of the country, or certainly out of the area where we are doing the digging. So we made a deal, and I assume they will honor the deal.

Trump on Ukraine: "This Is Biden's War, I Am Trying To Get Out" | Video | RealClearPolitics

Keeping a lot of bad actors out and protecting the Americans on site will require a US military presence.

[tomder55]

Trump will try to exploit the weakened position of Russia due to the fact that they did nothing to assist their ally Iran in their time of need. Russia is still in a better position than Ukraine . But they are tied down and relying on the assistance of others in the Axis of Evil aka the 'Axis of Upheaval' .
Axis of Upheaval - Wikipedia

President Trump is expected to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO Summit on Wednesday — the day after he castigated Russian leader Vladimir Putin for offering to “help” with Iran.
“Yeah, probably I’ll see him,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday, en route to the Netherlands

Trump set to meet Zelensky for first time since Pope Francis' funeral after zinging Putin


Trump appears to be attempting dismantling the Axis one nation at a time. He is not ready to have a heavy weight fight with China yet . So he is making accommodations.

Trump says China can buy Iranian oil, but urges it to purchase US crude | Reuters

He is getting a heroes welcome at the NATO Summit.
Nato chief praises ‘extraordinary’ Donald Trump for Iran strikes

With defence spending set to rise, Trump reassures NATO allies | Reuters