Trump says he wants Ukraine's rare earth elements as a condition of further support

[happyskullsplitter@lemmy.world]

Ukraine should tell Trump that the minerals are at 5 mile increments all along the eastern front

Gonna have to send troops and patriot systems to secure each one

[frezik@midwest.social]

You know, we have rare earth minerals in the US. The mines closed up, but they can be reopened. Rare earth isn't particularly rare, it's just that there are shortages due to the ramp up of EVs and solar panels. Things Trump hates.

[bombomom@lemmy.world]

Bringing in additional American military support now, getting American development dollars later, adding local jobs, all in exchange for tax revenues from mined minerals sounds like a win-win-win-win.

[asafum@feddit.nl]

Looks like the tech bros and oil oligarchs are really getting their money's worth. They bought this

[arbitraryvalue@sh.itjust.works]

The funny thing is that a deal which brings foreign investment to Ukraine can be good for Ukraine even if the minerals are sold on terms very favorable to the USA. I wish Trump didn't make it sound like extortion but who knows - maybe that's what gets Republican voters on board.

[nocturnalmorning@lemmy.world]

New number, who dis? - Ukraine

[charade_you_are@sh.itjust.works]

I'd 100% agree but Trump and his POS buddies are some the least trustworthy people on earth. I think he'll end up fucking the Ukrainians somehow

[marcos@lemmy.world]

The smart thing to do is to get their help, put the investment into a state-owned rare-earth mining company, and sell those back to the US at market price later. Or maybe even agree on a discount for some fixed time.

I don't really understand where Trump is going with that.

[partial_accumen@lemmy.world]

Honestly this is a good opportunity for Ukraine because trump is very easy to manipulate.

First:

Ukraine should say "absolutely!.. but we can't do any of that until all Russia is gone from Ukrainian soil including Crimea. We wouldn't want your Rare Earth metals to be attacked by Russians. Also we'll need to ship them out of our port cities many of which Russia currently occupies in the sea of Azov and Crimea. So give us everything we need to clear out the Russians and we'll get started on shipping you ore! Also, you want to make sure Ukraine is sovereign at the end of this and that Russia has no control over us because you know Putin won't honor our deal on Rare Earths for the USA"

Second:

Rare Earth minerals aren't uncommon, they're just very sparsely spread over large areas of dirt or water. The hard, dirty, and expensive work of producing Rare Earth metals is the refinement. I'm not seeing any requirement here the Ukraine refines it. This means that Ukraine could fulfill the commitment to trump buy shipping raw ore. The only think Ukraine will have to do is shovel dirt right out of the ground and put it in ships on the way to the USA. Any level of concentration would qualify (and again, they're not rare, just not densely concentrated).

Third:

Much of the military aid Ukraine has received is loans of military gear. Ukraine knows this and is planning on paying this back over many decades. If Ukraine could offer shiploads of dirt as payment, they could get out from under the war debt far earlier than they planned.

Ukraine should absolutely take this deal. It secures their borders, kicks Russia out, keeps the country sovereign, and reduces their war debt. Oh, it will probably also piss off Putin, which is a nice side win.

[partial_accumen@lemmy.world]

Honestly this is a good opportunity for Ukraine because trump is very easy to manipulate.

First:

Ukraine should say "absolutely!.. but we can't do any of that until all Russia is gone from Ukrainian soil including Crimea. We wouldn't want your Rare Earth metals to be attacked by Russians. Also we'll need to ship them out of our port cities many of which Russia currently occupies in the sea of Azov and Crimea. So give us everything we need to clear out the Russians and we'll get started on shipping you ore! Also, you want to make sure Ukraine is sovereign at the end of this and that Russia has no control over us because you know Putin won't honor our deal on Rare Earths for the USA"

Second:

Rare Earth minerals aren't uncommon, they're just very sparsely spread over large areas of dirt or water. The hard, dirty, and expensive work of producing Rare Earth metals is the refinement. I'm not seeing any requirement here the Ukraine refines it. This means that Ukraine could fulfill the commitment to trump by shipping raw ore. The only think Ukraine will have to do is shovel dirt right out of the ground and put it in ships on the way to the USA. Any level of concentration would qualify (and again, they're not rare, just not densely concentrated).

Third:

Much of the military aid Ukraine has received is loans of military gear. Ukraine knows this and is planning on paying this back over many decades. If Ukraine could offer shiploads of dirt as payment, they could get out from under the war debt far earlier than they planned.

Ukraine should absolutely take this deal. It secures their borders, kicks Russia out, keeps the country sovereign, and reduces their war debt. Oh, it will probably also piss off Putin, which is a nice side win.

[unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de]

Pretty sure all big US military equipment is backdoored and can be disabled remotely. At the very least it wont run for long or be repairable without the manufacturers help. Its DRM lock in all the way down to the hardware.

[militantatheist@lemmy.world]

Sure, that's why the Taliban are driving around in hummers

[nudenewt@lemm.ee]

Yes and no. Some is, yes, but a lot isn't. After all how do you think ISIS was able to get those black hawks running in the first place?

And if you've ever read through leaked training manuals you'd be shocked by how easy it is to get around whatever DRM some stuff has.

[ramblingpanda@lemmynsfw.com]

They should sell Hunter's laptop to him instead. Or the definite proof of pizzagate. Or whatever else cheap bs will convince him.

[freefall@lemmy.world]

They should say "ok", get the aid, win the war, then refuse to pay. Everyone would love that trumpian tactic "it's just business, mate"

[pilferjinx@lemmy.world]

Germany is soft on Russia. It would be very hard without their support.

[cyd@lemmy.world]

Rare earths to begin with. There will be more demands.

[joe_a@lemmy.world]

This was already agreed to last year, but Zelenskyy postponed the announcement specifically to appeal to Trump’s vanity. 

[johndclay@sh.itjust.works]

That's just payment, right? That's a lot better than nothing.

[johndclay@sh.itjust.works]

Or like buying weapons? Just bartering for commodities?