‘Art of the Deal’ at the Vatican

Did Trump finally strong-arm Zelensky into agreeing to a minerals deal in God’s House?

As you probably noticed, the third chair for Emmanuel Macron was removed shortly before the meeting between Trump and Zelensky. Trump had ‘No Cards’ Zelensky all to himself, as shown by the iconic photo in the Vatican that went all around the world.

Phoning into the News Nation Network, Trump said he had pressed Zelensky at the Vatican to seal the deal. Trump continued, “I went to them and said we got to get rare earth. They have things that a lot of other places don’t have. It’s a big asset.”

According to the BBC, Ukraine, in addition to rare earth metals, also has vast reserves of graphite, titanium and lithium: all highly sought after because of their use in renewable energy, military technology and infrastructure.

Fortunately for the US, because of the Trade War with China, this new deal with the Ukraine could not have come at a better time. China is where 90 per cent of the world’s rare earth minerals are sourced.

Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko inked the deal in Washington. Part of the agreement included reference to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Trump finally admitted it, though it took a ‘stick and a carrot’ to get him there. The final nail in Russia’s coffin was that no state or person who supplied the Russian War Machine could benefit from Ukrainian reconstruction.

If anyone believed Trump’s lie that Ukraine was losing the war, this was just a chess move of the president to impress upon us that ‘No Cards’ Zelensky should fall over himself to sign a deal favouring the US. With the new deal Ukraine has squirmed out of paying back to the US the billions already spent on this war.

No wonder Trump was in such a hurry to get a deal with Zelensky because since then ‘No Cards’ Ukraine has taken back 6.1 sq miles from the Russians in the Donetsk region; an area that has been fiercely contested for six months.

Ukraine has taken the ‘spring’ out of the Russian Spring offensive in the area by getting in first and taking the key hub of Eastern Ukraine Pokrovsky. Ukrainian generals have been at the front encouraging troops while the poor Russian soldiers were trying to mount a rearguard action on motorcycles at Pokrovsky where they were easily picked off by Ukranian drones.

According to commentator Tan Globe, steel manufacturing can resume in the Donetsk area providing jobs and mining of coke and coal. A new page has been turned. Forty per cent of traffic to Eastern Ukraine flows through Pokrovsky by road and rail, making it strategically important.

The Russian conscription is like having to fill a bucket with holes in it. Though 1,000 are conscripted a day, it is thought that 1,500 are dying a day. The Kremlin is running out of fuel and armour. Donkeys are used to transport fuel to the front line. Is this a way to fight a war? Putin is in a quagmire of his own making. Towns in Donetsk are falling like dominoes to the Ukrainians. Crimea is also taking a battering. Could you blame the Russians for retreating?