Ukraine-Russia struggle newest: US ‘intensifies demands for minerals’ as UK navy delegation to go to Kyiv | EUROtoday

An analyst has described the Trump administration’s newest proposals on a deal granting the US management over Ukraine’s essential minerals and power belongings as “an expropriation document”.

“It is an expropriation document,” mentioned Alan Riley, an knowledgeable on power regulation on the Atlantic Council. “There are no guarantees, no defence clauses, the US puts up nothing.

“The Americans can walk away, the Ukrainians can’t. I’ve never seen anything like it before.”

Under the proposals, the US would have the ability to veto gross sales of Ukraine’s sources to different nations, based on The Telegraph.

Prof Riley advised the outlet: “It is not compatible with EU membership, and perhaps that is part of the purpose. I have to wonder whether the real intention might not be to force Zelensky to reject it.”

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged the US to reply after he mentioned Russian artillery had broken Ukraine’s power infrastructure within the front-line metropolis of Kherson – two days after the White House introduced that every facet had agreed to a truce on power strikes.

“Two days ago, there was a night when there were no strikes on the energy sector, today energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson was damaged by Russian artillery,” Mr Zelensky mentioned in Paris. “I believe that the US should respond with actions.”

The United States introduced separate agreements with Kyiv and Moscow on Tuesday to pause assaults within the Black Sea and towards one another’s power installations, the primary such deal since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January.

Speaking after the summit in Paris, Mr Zelensky mentioned: “Our side, as long as no one understands who is monitoring what … all this [evidence] will be prepared and transferred to the US, and after that we are waiting for America’s reaction, since they told us that they will respond to violations.”

Kherson regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin mentioned work was persevering with to revive energy to shoppers who had been left with out provide on account of Russian shelling.

The Trump administration is pushing for a dramatically expanded deal to regulate Ukraine’s essential minerals and power belongings with none safety ensures in return, based on a report.

In what the newspaper described as an aggressive enlargement of the White House’s earlier calls for, previous to a deal collapsing throughout Volodymyr Zelensky’s disastrous go to to Washington final month, the Financial Times reported {that a} new draft of the deal despatched to Kyiv on Sunday would apply to all mineral sources – together with oil and fuel – throughout the whole lot of Ukraine’s territory.

And Washington is reportedly demanding that Ukraine and the US arrange a supervisory board to supervise a joint funding fund to separate the revenue from oil, fuel, and mineral initiatives between the 2 nations. The US would appoint three of its 5 board member, handing Washington full veto energy over the fund, the FT reported.

Three senior Ukrainian officers advised the outlet {that a} deal is unlikely to be signed subsequent week, opposite to claims in Washington. One labelled the brand new US draft proposal “unfair”, whereas one other likened it to “robbery”.

A 3rd official mentioned {that a} workforce of authorized advisers has been introduced in to assist Kyiv study the doc as they put together a counter-offer.

Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia is nervous about Nato’s actions within the Arctic and can reply by strengthening its navy functionality within the polar area.

“We are certainly concerned about Nato members describing the Far North as the region of possible conflicts,” the Russian president mentioned, noting that Russia’s neighbors Finland and Sweden have joined the alliance. “Russia has never threatened anyone in the Arctic, but we will closely follow the developments and mount an appropriate response by increasing our military capability and modernising military infrastructure.”

Russia has sought to say its affect over huge areas of the Arctic in competitors with the United States, Canada, Denmark and Norway as shrinking polar ice from the warming planet provides new alternatives for sources and transport routes. China additionally has proven an growing curiosity within the area, believed to carry as much as one-fourth of the Earth’s undiscovered oil and fuel.

“We won’t allow any infringement on our country’s sovereignty, reliably safeguard our national interests while supporting peace and stability in the polar region,” Mr Putin mentioned.

But Mr Putin added: “The stronger our positions will be, the more significant the results will be and the broader opportunities we will have to launch international projects in the Arctic involving the countries that are friendly to us, and, possibly, Western countries if they show interest in joint work. I’m sure the time will come to launch such projects.”

Vladimir Putin has mentioned that Donald Trump’s push for management over Greenland isn’t a surprise given longtime US curiosity within the mineral-rich territory.

Speaking at a coverage discussion board within the Artic port of Murmansk, Mr Putin famous that the United States first thought-about plans to win management over Greenland within the nineteenth century, after which supplied to purchase it from Denmark after World War II.

“It can look surprising only at first glance and it would be wrong to believe that this is some sort of extravagant talk by the current US administration,” Putin said. “It’s obvious that the United States will continue to systematically advance its geostrategic, military-political and economic interests in the Arctic.”

Ukraine’s European allies do not all agree on the proposed deployment of an armed force in the country to back up an eventual peace deal and only some want to take part, French president Emmanuel Macron has said.

“It is not unanimous,” he said, after wrapping up the summit – attended by the leaders of nearly 30 countries, as well as EU and Nato chiefs – aimed at strengthening Kyiv’s hand and its military as it pushes for a ceasefire with Moscow.

“We do not need unanimity to achieve it,” Mr Macron added, vowing that France and the UK – who are driving the initiative – will forge ahead with the “reassurance force” with several other countries.

A Russian war correspondent has been killed and her cameraman seriously injured in a landmine explosion near the border with Ukraine.

Russian state TV journalist Anna Prokofieva and cameraman Dmitry Volkov had been in Russia’s Belgorod region when they ran over a landmine planted by the Ukrainian military, state-run Channel One said in a statement.

The 35-year-old reporter “died while performing her professional duty,” the news outlet said.

Two Russian journalists and their driver were among six people killed in an artillery strike earlier this week in the Russian-controlled parts of Ukraine’s Luhansk region, according to Russian authorities and media.

European leaders reaffirmed their long-term support for Ukraine during a summit in Paris on Thursday but appeared to make little progress on what role they might play in providing security guarantees if a peace deal is struck with Moscow.

It was the third summit of what France and Britain have called the “coalition of the prepared”, reflecting concern among Europeans that the US no longer represents a firm bulwark of support for Ukraine in its three-year-old fight against Russia.

US President Donald Trump, in office since 20 January, has said he wants to broker a swift end to the war.

But a series of bilateral talks between the US and the warring sides has yet to yield a significant diminution of hostilities.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said leaders had agreed on the need for more support for Ukraine to ensure it was in the strongest possible position for any peace process, without elaborating.

He also said he would like to see a peace deal developing “in days and weeks, not months”.