From Battlefield to Business Deal: Ukraine’s Minerals Are the Real Prize
So, for those who were outraged at Trump potentially ending the war in Ukraine—congratulations. You got exactly what you wanted, and so did Trump. The war continues, but with new terms of engagement.
Ukraine has now agreed to a minerals deal with the United States. From the Oval Office, where executive orders flow like water, Trump clarified what Ukraine receives in exchange for its natural wealth: “The right to fight on.”
Let that sink in. Not peace. Not territorial integrity. Not NATO membership. But the “right” to continue a war that has already claimed an estimated million lives.
“They’re very brave,” Trump added, before delivering the cold truth: “Without the United States and its money and military equipment, this war would have been over in a very short period of time.”
The agreement reportedly lacks the American security guarantees Kyiv desperately sought. While it doesn’t explicitly mention the $500 billion figure Trump initially demanded, it does require Ukraine to pay 50% of revenues from its state-owned natural resources into a “fund for Ukraine.”
President Zelenskyy, who previously declared “I will not sign what 10 generations of Ukrainians will have to pay back,” appears to have found terms he can live with—or perhaps more accurately, terms he cannot afford to reject or if we want to be really pernickety, terms Ukrainians can continue to die for.
Ukraine’s treasure trove of critical minerals—from lithium to titanium—vital for modern technology manufacturing, was always the prize in this deadly game of empire. As peace talks stall and casualties mount, the real winners emerge: defence contractors and resource extraction companies.
The machinery of war grinds on. Only now, we’ve dropped the pretence about what it’s really for.
So to all the armchair generals and media hawks who were horrified at the prospect of negotiations: congratulations. Your moral outrage has secured exactly what you claimed to oppose—a war without end, fuelled by imperial greed. Each time you denounced peace talks as “appeasement,” you helped ensure another generation of Ukrainians and Russians would fertilise the blood-soaked soil of Donbas. The minerals beneath their graves were always worth more than their lives. At least now we can be honest about it.
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