Journalist on rare earth metals deal between U.S. and Ukraine: Story has slightly anecdotal nature

He shared this on Espreso TV.

"I don’t think the deal about natural resources has any significant importance. You see, Trump mentions it sometimes, sometimes not. Did he bring it up during his meeting with Zelenskyy in Rome? Not a word about it in his social media when he discussed the results of these talks. The White House said, 'Good conversation.' Trump criticized Putin, but didn’t mention Zelenskyy or how important it is for Ukraine and the U.S. to cooperate in this field. Everyone talks about the important meeting, the main event of the day, which ends the scandal in the Oval Office, but — no mention of minerals. I actually think the story about minerals is somewhat anecdotal," Portnikov noted.

He explained that the story about minerals originated from Zelenskyy, who was thinking about how to impress Trump, who was still a presidential candidate at the time. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who knows Trump very well, suggested this topic to Zelenskyy. It was Lindsey Graham’s idea, coming from the Republican side: "If you want to get his attention, offer him money, because Putin, as we understand, is offering him money." "So, Zelenskyy proposed the deal about minerals, and initially, Trump grabbed onto it as a tool to continue helping Ukraine. But how could he help Ukraine when there’s no other way except to monetize this help? We remember that Trump always said that Biden gave away taxpayer money that needs to be repaid. How would you repay it? With a minerals deal — entering into a partnership that would allow you to recover all of that. It’s a simple, logical idea for people like Trump. And that’s how Zelenskyy found himself not in his own trap but in Lindsey Graham's trap, who may not have anticipated such a reaction," the journalist commented.

In Portnikov's opinion, Trump may not have a strong interest in the minerals deal because he’s not particularly interested in providing new military aid to Ukraine. Currently, he mostly talks about economic relations with Russia, with a new focus on large economic dealings with Russia. 

"Especially now that China is limiting the supply of rare earth metals to the U.S., and Putin says to him: 'I have as many rare earth metals as you want.' It’s obviously much more interesting for Trump to lift sanctions on Russia by recognizing Russia’s status in Crimea than to sign any deal with Ukraine. I’m not saying this deal won’t be signed, but definitely not in the current form it’s being discussed. Zelenskyy says they hired an American company to act on behalf of Ukraine and are negotiating with another American legal company to bring it to a legal level. But it turns out — if it’s brought to a legal level, not to the lawless level that U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent tried to impose on Zelenskyy during his first visit to Kyiv — this doesn’t seem as interesting to the U.S. as it did when the whole story started," Portnikov concluded.

• U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have realized that Russia is the biggest obstacle to achieving peace in the Russian-Ukrainian war.