Summary
Ukraine and the U.S. are negotiating a revised deal over Ukraine’s mineral and energy revenues after President Zelenskyy rejected an initial U.S. proposal to give 50% of proceeds to the U.S.
The Trump administration, which presented the deal abruptly, has criticized Zelenskyy’s refusal, with Trump calling him a “dictator.”
Talks resumed with U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg, but security guarantees remain a sticking point.
The controversy has strained U.S.-Ukraine relations as Zelenskyy insists on protecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and economic independence.
No! Do not give in to this freak!
I hope it’s just making a show of being open to negotiation for PR reasons without any intention of making a deal.
Indeed. Zelensky is definitively the smarter one.
Smarter but also in a really tight spot…
I doubt he’s “giving in.”
What’s happening here is that Trump thinks he’s being a tough negotiator by doing all these supposed “power moves” of offering ridiculous deals and trash-talking his negotiating partner. But the result is ending up being the opposite - the US is throwing away all of the power it thought it had, Ukraine is showing that they don’t need the US. Each threat that Trump makes is a card he’s playing and revealing to actually be useless.
Now that the US has burned through its hand, Zelensky can turn around and tell them “okay, here’s my offer.”
I’m sorry but we really really need to be realistic here. Trump absolutely has leverage over Zelenskyy. I want Zelenskyy to win this war and Trump and his ilk straight up suck, but we can’t disregard reality just because we don’t like a certain group. Zelenskyy is in no position to “turn around and tell them “okay, here’s my offer.””
Maybe domestic pressure, some concessions, international pressure, blah blah blah can convince trump to stop being an idiot, but if Trump walks, it’s not really going to hurt his administration and agenda (it’ll hurt USA long term, but he DGAF).