The cascade of derogatory words, threats and lies from the US president this week is due, in large part, to the fact that the Ukrainian president refused to sign a draft agreement on these minerals, an affront to the White House… Arriving in Kiev by train, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on 12 February. The host came for a diktat, a short document in hand. Either his host would immediately sign a draft agreement on Ukrainian strategic minerals – in other words, rare earths – handing over more than half of them to the US, or Washington, according to Scott Bessent, would end its economic and military support to Ukraine, which had been ongoing for three years. These coveted rare earths are full of lithium for phone batteries, uranium to run nuclear power plants, graphite for electric car batteries and titanium, prized in aerospace. In addition, there are oil and gas…
