ANASTASSIA FEDYK and EMILIA MARSHALL
Until the Oval Office meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went off the rails, it appeared that Zelensky was there to sign a deal requiring Ukraine to contribute 50% of future profits from its commodity mining to a fund jointly managed by the United States. Instead, Zelensky’s repeated requests for at least some security guarantees culminated in a verbal assault from Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance, and Zelensky left empty-handed.
What Ukraine was supposed to gain from the deal was never entirely clear. But whatever the details, Ukraine’s value cannot be reduced to a mineral transaction. The country’s fate could reshape the geopolitical order, potentially shifting the balance of power, in Europe and beyond, for decades to come.
Despite Trump and Vance’s narrow characterization, Ukraine is far more than a small, mineral-rich country fighting off a much larger aggressor. Ukraine was a pillar of Soviet military power during World War II and the Cold War, and it remains a major source of agricultural commodities, skilled labor, and technological innovation.
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