European diplomats say the U.S. is pushing numerous countries to not support the Ukrainian text, and instead get behind a U.S. text that doesn't refer to the Russian invasion and doesn't put any responsibility for the war on Russia. The U.S. draft resolution calls for ending the conflict between Ukraine and Russia.
American billionaire and Donald Trump ally Elon Musk has spread disinformation that a "Zelenskyy's Ministry of Defence official" allegedly stole US$46 million by buying a villa, a vineyard and 27 plots of land in France. At the same time, the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office on Saturday published a report suggesting that the person in question is Dmytro Perehudov, the former head of the Yanukovych-era Ukrspecexport and Ukroboronprom (Ukraine’s Defence Industry), who has been on the wanted list since 2017.
Commentators have described Trump’s aggressive ultimatum as “mafia imperialism”, a “colonial agreement”, and reminiscent of what the Europeans did in the 18th century when they carved up Africa.
“It’s as if we lost the war to America. This looks to me like reparations,” Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist at the Centre for Economic Strategy thinktank in Kyiv, said. Ukraine’s overall reserves are worth $14.8tn. They include lithium, titanium and uranium, as well as coal, steel, iron ore, and undersea shale gas. Many deposits had not been developed, Landa said, either because they were not feasible or due to political instability.
Residents living near Liodiane said they supported the construction of a new lithium mine. They were not, however, ready to give the profits to Trump. “This idea is too much,” Tetiana Slyvenko, a local administrator, said. “He wants to take resources from a country in a time of war. How are we supposed to live? We have children. It’s as if the US seeks to deprive us of our economic potential. It would finish us off, the same as America did with Red Indians [Native Americans].”
About 300 people live in the neighbouring villages of Kopanky and Haiivka, most of them elderly. Breaking off from ice fishing on Kopanky’s picturesque frozen lake, 72-year-old Stanislav Ryabchenko said he hoped the mine would bring young people back to the community and create jobs. “What Trump suggests is blackmail. He knows we can’t push the Russians out on our own. We need joint production, not a takeover,” he said, showing off two carp.
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