Trump’s resource demands from Ukraine cover ‘everything from ports and infrastructure to oil and gas’ and are harsher than reparations imposed on Germany after WWI — The Telegraph
The agreement proposed by Donald Trump’s administration granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s natural resources would give Washington control over the country’s mineral and oil and gas reserves, ports, and unspecified “other infrastructure,” The Telegraph reported, citing a draft of the contract.
The Trump administration is seeking 50 percent of Ukraine’s current revenues from resource extraction, as well as half the value of “all new [resource extraction] licenses issued to third parties.” Such revenues would be subject to a lien in favor of the U.S. “That clause means ‘pay us first, and then feed your children,’” The Telegraph quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying.
The agreement also states that “for all future licenses, the U.S. will have a right of first refusal for the purchase of exportable minerals.”
The Telegraph notes that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky proposed granting the U.S. access to Ukraine’s resources back in September, hoping to attract American investment that would make another Russian invasion more difficult. Some of Ukraine’s mineral deposits lie near the front lines in the east or in Russian-occupied territory.
“He probably did not expect to be confronted with terms normally imposed on aggressor states defeated in war,” The Telegraph wrote. “They are worse than the financial penalties imposed on Germany and Japan after their defeat in 1945. […] If this draft were accepted, Trump’s demands would amount to a higher share of Ukrainian GDP than reparations imposed on Germany at the Versailles Treaty.”
