Deal on Ukraine minerals 'a game-changer' for US support for Kyiv, says US senator

A potential deal between the US and Ukraine on rare earth minerals will be a “game-changer” for ramping up the Trump administration's support for Ukraine, Republican Senator Lyndsay Graham said on Saturday.

Kyiv and Washington are in talks to strike a deal that would allow the US the right to mine critical minerals, including rare earth minerals, that are used in many everyday and high-tech appliances, as well as military hardware. US President Donald Trump implied earlier this week that the deal was a must for Ukraine to secure continued military support.

“If the mineral agreement happens it’s a nightmare for Putin because we have something to defend that we didn’t have before," Graham told the Munich Security Conference.

“They’re sitting on top of trillion dollars’ worth of minerals that all of us can benefit from,” he said.

It’s a “game changer, because President Trump can go to the American people and say Ukraine’s not a burden, it’s a benefit”, he said, adding: "So you better be pulling for this minerals agreement."

Meanwhile Graham told the conference that the US Senate was firmly behind America’s role and membership of Nato, despite some less committed pronouncements by US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth who said European Security was no longer a primary priority for the US.

“The American Senate is firmly in Nato’s camp," Graham said.

“There’s an isolationist movement in the Republican party but we’ve dealt with that since the founding of Nato.”

“We need Nato now more than ever. Putin wouldn’t invade a Nato nation because he understands the consequences would be too severe.”

He said the West would be “stupid” if it doesn’t substantially increase weapon contribution to Kyiv; pointing to the opportunities for deal-making for weapons manufacturers in his home state.

“If we don’t arm Ukraine with the fullest extent possible then shame on us. They need more F16s not less, and they make them in South Carolina."

“We’d be stupid not to make the most lethal Ukrainian army possible as a form of deterrence.”

Graham said "lessons were learned" from the failure of successive Western governments to react with strength to Putin’s initial invasion in Ukraine in 2014, for fear of "provoking" him further.

“We got it wrong in 2014."

“We should have integrated our economies with Ukraine to give them hope, but we didn’t do that because want to provoke Putin.”

“We should have built up the Ukrainian military so it would have been harder to invade, but we didn’t do that because want to provoke Putin.”

“And we never told him what would happen if he did it again because we didn’t want to deal with provoking Putin.”

“Don’t worry about provoking Putin, worry about stopping Putin.”

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First bit of sense on the subject matter to come out of America, G'onya Lindsay.

So now it’s not a ‘cheap Mafia move’……get a grip Hysteria.

Senator Graham is a Ropublican S enator that has at times be a headache for he Party and I am not sure whrther he has been briefed on the issue by Trump - but he ma have been in talks between the executive and the Senators,

The fact is that that the rare minerals can be used by expert miners is not a an issue existting comapnies in Uktraine - that being the reason why Trump wants to see that te minin g would not like other ventures in Ukraine are not linked to corrupsion - whic would mean that no benefit for funding of rebuillding of Ukraine would be forthcomingfrom any mining of such minerals and that asie from taxation could aide Ukraine in getting money to invest in such rebuilding projects by the mining companies themselves as well. For instance Burisma - who ere given corruptly the righs to oi; and gas farming in Ukrane while Daddy kept the corruption goiing and getting paid generously for services rendered and also receiving part of the loot,

A repeat of that type of thing beneit the corrupt in both the corrupt Goverment in Ukraine and in the USA and is bound not to benefit the people of Ukraine - so it may be a good way t o esnire that he beneficiarues are not sallowed up in further corruption. - so dear Zelesnskyy id likrly to b ent packng and Governance in Ukraine restored. sp Zelsnskyy keep lying aboutnot been invlved in the peacemaking negitiations. The likely most popular person in Ukraine was the army commander in Estern Ukraine - but he was fired by Zelenskyy and then fled to London because of armaments suppied by the USA did not reach the fighting army, He is likely ro be he enxt President,of Ukraine, He was a real victim pf a tptally corrupt regime,

“There’s an isolationist movement in the Republican party but we’ve dealt with that since the founding of Nato.”

No shame at all. Liberated speech. No constraints at all, can say and tell anything and nothing, it does not matter at all. All under the guidance of non globalist Trump.

So now it’s not a ‘cheap Mafia move’……get a grip Hysteria.

Hard to see how it is not. Stated for a long time that liberal societies and criminal societies have a lot in common. The founding fathers were ruffians and since the rise of liberalism, the lines between non criminal political power and criminal political power.

Criminality is one sector of society that has got a boost from the generalization of liberalism. This strategy is commonly employed in gang wars over turfs when a gang steps in to force acquire interests of a gang that may be threatened by another gang and therefore get involved in stopping that another gang's expansion.

The way the United States of America are acting is typiical of what can be done by gangs when they oppose each other.