Summary
Donald Trump stated that U.S. aid to Ukraine should be compensated with $500 billion worth of its mineral resources, including rare earth elements.
He claimed Ukraine had “essentially agreed” to this arrangement. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted at allowing U.S. access to these resources to maintain support.
The idea aligns with Ukraine’s “victory plan” for post-war recovery.
Trump’s comments drew criticism, with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz condemning his approach as “very egotistic, very self-centered.”
Well, there also is a big amount of rebuilding to be done and no matter who would be in the US government, there would be a strong push for the rebuilding to end in factories, apartments and farms to be owned by US investors. Also the US has a history of combining “security” with resource access.
In this regards Ukraine is getting fucked by receiving less aid than is needed to push back, but just enough to cause maximal attrition to Russia. And using the vast destruction caused by a prolonged war, was likely part of the strategy to profit off this war, both for Russia expecting victory and the US/Western Allies expecting Russia to eventually succumb to the attrition.
Now problem is that Russia kept escalating, instead of limiting their losses.