THE GUARDIAN: National security adviser says Ukraine is wrong to push back against Trump’s approach to peace talks with Russia
White House officials have told Ukraine to stop badmouthing Donald Trump and to sign a deal handing over half of the country’s mineral wealth to the US, saying a failure to do so would be unacceptable.
The US national security adviser, Mike Waltz, told Fox News that Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, should “tone down” his criticism of the US and take a “hard look” at the deal. It proposes giving Washington $500bn worth of natural resources, including oil and gas.
Waltz said Kyiv was wrong to push back against the US president’s approach to peace talks with Moscow, given everything the US had done for Ukraine. He denied accusations the US had snubbed Ukraine and America’s European allies by excluding them from talks earlier this week with Russia. This was routine “shuttle diplomacy”, he said. » | Luke Harding in Kyiv | Thursday, February 20, 2025
This dude is talking through his pine end! Look what Ukraine has done for America and the West! They have done all the fighting on the West’s behalf to stop the war spreading. America should be grateful to Ukraine, not the other way around. Those rare earth minerals belong to Ukraine and to future generations of Ukrainians, not to Trump and his billionaire cronies. – © Mark Alexander
