Here we go again-Ukraine once again pt2

[Jimbuna]

Russia is and will remain most significant threat to NATO for decades – Lithuanian Foreign Minister Budrys

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys said that Russia is and will remain the biggest threat to NATO for decades.

According to Censor.NET, Budris wrote about this in the social network X.

"At the meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, I emphasized that we need strong NATO muscles and strong political will to build them. Russia is and will remain the most significant threat to the Alliance for decades. To deter it, we need more capabilities, more sources of supply, more exercises, including nuclear exercises," he wrote. Source: https://censor.net/en/n3544903

Economic guarantees, including EU membership, are foundation of just peace for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy emphasized that economic guarantees should be enshrined in documents after the end of the war in order to ensure Ukraine’s access to EU funding and programs.

He said this during a meeting with the heads of territorial communities in the Chernihiv region, Censor.NET reports.

"Finance is part of the security guarantees. Financial support is important for us. The first is the European Union as an economic union, which we should join in the near future. We are counting on it. For us, this means economic guarantees and access to funding. Freedoms, rights, and values that we share with Europeans are also important — but it is equally important that we are on equal footing and have access to all relevant programs," Zelenskyy said.

The President added that membership in the European Union will open up significant economic prospects for Ukraine, particularly for the agricultural sector of the Chernihiv region, where there are great opportunities for exporting products. "It is very important to understand and know this, because this is the return of money to your region from exports (of agricultural products)," he said.

Zelenskyy emphasized that these economic guarantees, along with rights and freedoms, are part of a just peace that must be enshrined in international agreements. "So that no one can block this in the future, we want guarantees. And it is very important to fix them in the relevant documents at the end of the war," he added. Source: https://censor.net/en/n3544898

Trump’s trade tariffs dealt blow to US economy — Bloomberg

The introduction of new tariffs by the Donald Trump administration has resulted in significant losses for American assets, triggering a drop in stock indices and a weakening of the US dollar.

Bloomberg reported this, according to Censor.NET.

According to the report, US stock index futures fell by more than 4% following the introduction of the new tariffs, which also caused the dollar to weaken and the yield on 10-year Treasury bonds to drop to its lowest level since October of last year.

Meanwhile, European and Asian markets suffered smaller losses. The Stoxx Europe 600 index declined by 1.9%, but the euro strengthened by 2.2% against the dollar, and the Japanese yen rose by 1.9%. Over the course of the day, the dollar experienced its sharpest drop in two years, as investors adjusted to the potential negative economic consequences.

Ray Attrill, an expert at National Australia Bank Ltd, noted that rising concerns about U.S. economic growth — driven by the new tariffs and falling stock indices — are contributing to the weakening of the dollar, which is losing its traditional role as a safe-haven reserve currency.

Reports indicate that the U.S. stock market was already experiencing volatility, and the new measures have only worsened the situation. Since the beginning of the year, the S&P 500 has fallen by 3.6%, and the Nasdaq 100 by 7%. U.S. tech companies have also incurred losses. In contrast, Germany’s DAX index has risen by 10% in 2025.

Against this backdrop, investors are actively seeking safe-haven assets, anticipating potential countermeasures from other countries. Source: https://censor.net/en/n3544902

[Dargo]

Ukraine has solved some manpower shortages in war effort, US general says

WASHINGTON, April 3 (Reuters) - Ukraine appears to have resolved some of its shortages of troops fighting against Russia, including by widening the pool of eligible recruits, the top U.S. general in Europe said on Thursday. U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli also underscored that any U.S. cutoff in U.S. provision of weapons and intelligence to Ukraine would be extremely harmful to its war effort, despite Kyiv's attempts to diversify its supply of weapons suppliers. The comments came after President Donald Trump temporarily cut off some assistance to Ukraine after an Oval Office blow up with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which Vice President JD Vance complained about Kyiv's manpower shortages and Trump said Zelenskiy didn't "have the cards" to end the war without U.S. backing.
https://archive.ph/krjjY
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe...ys-2025-04-03/

[Jimbuna]

[Reece]

[MaDef]

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

We gave those yahoos 31 tanks last year, they've lost 20, I don't think we're sending anymore anytime soon.

[mapuc]

Markus

[Reece]

[Reece]

[Jimbuna]

[Jimbuna]

[Skybird]

[Tagesspiegel] "The text is a horror": What Trump's new draft of the Ukraine raw materials deal contains

The scandal in the White House prevented the conclusion of a raw materials deal between the US and Ukraine. Now the Americans have presented a new draft – and it's quite something.

By Valeriia Semeniuk

"Plundering," "slavery," "colonial enslavement of Ukraine": Ukrainian and Western media have found harsh terms in recent days for the new version of the so-called raw materials deal that the US wants to conclude with the country attacked by Russia.

A quick reminder: The agreement, which gives Washington a share of revenue from Ukrainian natural resources, should have been signed long ago. US President Donald Trump had pushed for it at the beginning of the year, but his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, eventually caved.
The Tagesspiegel app: Current news, background information, and analysis delivered directly to your smartphone. Plus the digital newspaper. Download it for free here.

But then, on February 28, the famous scandal in the White House occurred, in which Trump ejected Zelensky from his government headquarters after an argument in front of live cameras. And the raw materials agreement seemed to be off the table for the time being.

But now the issue is back on the agenda. Ukraine will face "very big problems" if it backs out and refuses to sign the planned agreement, Trump threatened last Sunday. However, the content of the deal has been changed in recent weeks – to Kyiv's disadvantage.

While it was originally primarily about US participation in the revenues from the mining of so-called rare earths, oil and gas have now been added. This is according to statements by Ukrainian politicians who have been given access to the draft. The White House also reportedly wants to co-manage Ukrainian infrastructure such as ports, pipelines, and the railway network.

"The text I saw is simply horrific," said shocked Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak. The only hope, he said, is that it is not yet a final document, but a draft.

However, Zheleznyak should also be aware that Trump, who temporarily withheld all military aid from Ukraine in order to impose his will in negotiations with Russia, is not known for his willingness to compromise.

One of Washington's fundamental conditions is that Ukraine should recognize $120 billion in previous US aid as debt.

That is certainly less than the $350 billion Trump initially wanted. But for the war-torn country, whose gross domestic product in 2024 was $180 billion, it is still overwhelmingly high. Many in Kyiv are also offended that the new US president wants back money that his predecessor, Joe Biden, once gave them as aid among allies.

According to the deal, Ukrainian debt is also considered a basic US contribution to a Ukrainian-American investment fund intended to benefit reconstruction.
Ukraine is rich in natural resources. However, this Donetsk coal mine is currently located in Russian-occupied territory.

If Trump has his way, the fund will be managed by a "general partner" appointed by the US. Ukraine, on the other hand, will only be a "limited partner": without decision-making power, but with the financial obligation to pay 50 percent of future income to the fund. An earlier version of the draft had envisioned the two sides as equal partners with equal rights.

Three of the five seats on the fund's supervisory board now go to Washington, and only two to Ukraine. And the US will have the primary right to invest in the Ukrainian economy. Only if the American side is not interested in investing will Kyiv have the right to negotiate with other states.

"Ukraine has become a hostage of Trump, who is notorious for his aggressive business practices," Yevhen Mahda, director of a Ukrainian think tank called the Institute for World Politics, told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. Yevhen Mahda is a political scientist and heads the Ukrainian think tank Institute for World Politics.

On the one hand, such an agreement would be political suicide for Zelensky, says Mahden. Furthermore, it is unlikely that a majority in parliament will vote for ratification of the document in its current form. "Without ratification, however, the agreement cannot enter into force," explains Mahda.

However, the political scientist also sees the significant risk that non-signing could pose for his country: The easily offended Trump could perceive this as a public slap in the face. "The US president is already annoyed by Zelensky's intransigence, which he perceives as an inability to negotiate," says Mahda. "Rejection of the agreement could be the final straw that leads to a final split between Ukraine and the US – with unforeseeable consequences."

On the other hand, the expert believes it cannot be ruled out that Trump is deliberately pushing the terms of the deal so high that Ukraine could no longer agree to it. Then, he argues, Trump could officially blame Zelensky for the failure of his peace initiative.

Kyiv therefore has little choice but to hope that Washington will soften its own demands. This did indeed work once before with the previous version of the deal – the one Zelenskyy was supposed to sign during his US visit at the end of February. Even then, the US side's ideas originally went significantly further than those ultimately reflected in the final draft.

Mustafa Nayem is the former head of the State Agency for the Reconstruction of Ukraine.

The former head of the State Agency for the Reconstruction of Ukraine, Mustafa Nayem, refuses to give up his confidence. "It is necessary to make a number of changes that ensure Ukraine's equal representation and reduce financial risks," he says. "Then the model envisaged in the agreement would transform from a threat to Ukraine into a development opportunity."

But Nayem has already negotiated with the US investment agency DFC, which is now slated to co-found the new US-Ukrainian Development Fund. He therefore also knows: "The DFC is primarily concerned with protecting American investments. Therefore, Ukraine should not appeal to political sympathies, but rather to the pragmatic interests of the United States."

His optimism is therefore extremely cautious, as Najjem himself admits. "So far, the agreement has been formulated entirely in the interests of the American side," he says. "Without any real powers or guarantees for Ukraine."

[Jimbuna]

Caught between a rock and a hard place

[Dargo]

Protection racket without protection!

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Markus

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