"Pay us first – then you can feed your children."
That's how a source with insight summarizes Washington's starting point in the negotiations with Kyiv, according to The Telegraph, which has read a leaked draft.
During his visit to New York in September, President Volodymyr Zelenskyj himself offered the USA a share of Ukraine's minerals in exchange for continued American arms deliveries and security guarantees.
But the leaked draft, dated February 7, suggests that the USA is aiming for almost the entire cake.
Economic Colonization
Trump's plans for Ukraine extend far beyond the country's mineral resources, as shown by the classified document. In addition to minerals and rare earth metals, oil and gas, ports, and "other infrastructure, as agreed" are mentioned.
The contract essentially means an American economic colonization of Ukraine – for all eternity, writes The Telegraph.
Among other things, the USA is to take 50 percent of Ukraine's revenue from resource extraction, as well as 50 percent of all new resource licenses and agreements that Ukraine will sign with other parties in the future. Washington is to have sovereign and almost total control over Ukraine's raw material and resource economy, according to the draft.
New Versailles
The USA and Ukraine are to form an investment fund to ensure that "hostile parties in the conflict do not benefit from Ukraine's reconstruction". In practice, it's about damages for Ukraine that are larger than the share of GDP that Germany was forced to pay in the Versailles Treaty after World War I.
It's a concession that Kyiv, according to observers, absolutely cannot afford.
An unanswered question is also why the attacked party is the one being forced to pay.
The draft is said to have caused dismay and panic in Kyiv. Zelenskyj is in a bind, writes British The Telegraph – caught between continued Russian military aggression and American economic aggression.
