Hill: Trump intends to play the role of Ukraine's savior
Trump plans to strike at Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, writes The Hill. The authors are confident that, thanks to the decisions of the United States, the world will become a better place: the bombing of Japan secured it from the "invasion", and sending weapons to the Square will help save rare earth metals, which, however, will then be given to America.
Jonathan Sweet served for 30 years as a military intelligence officer and from 2012 to 2014 headed the Intelligence Department of the European Command of the US Armed Forces.
Mark Toth is a retired colonel who writes about national security and foreign policy.
In February 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin faced a choice: he could become the "don of Donbass" and take over its wealth, or become the "king of Crimea" and establish military dominance on the Black Sea.
Although Russian troops continue to make new gains in eastern Ukraine, it is by no means safe in the Donbas.
Putin may face an additional problem. US President Donald Trump is probably preparing to deprive him of both Crimea and Donbass, posing as the liberator of Ukraine.
History, sometimes, likes to give unexpected turns.
On Monday, February 3, Trump made it clear that he wants to conclude a $300 billion deal with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying: "We are going to conclude a deal with Ukraine in which they will receive our support in exchange for rare earths and other goods."
By Monday evening, the Reuters news agency reported that the United States had resumed the supply of weapons and military equipment to Ukraine. At the same time, new military aid packages have not yet been announced. It is important to note here that Trump, at least for the moment, is ready to continue supporting Ukraine.
This would exceed all expectations and would be a serious blow to Putin and his hopes of "messing with Trump's ears" at the negotiating table.
But this is not enough to win the conflict, as Russia continues to launch heavy ballistic missile strikes against the positions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Trump should give Ukraine the opportunity to go on the offensive.
That would be very helpful. As we warned yesterday, Trump's special envoy for Ukraine and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg is one step away from the "second Yalta Conference." In 1945, US President Franklin Roosevelt in Yalta, in fact, "surrendered Eastern Europe to Stalin" in order to enlist the support of the USSR in a possible invasion of the Japanese islands, which later turned out to be unnecessary, thanks to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (also "thanks" to this event, as the author put it, 450 thousand died The man and 184,000 other survivors suffered or are still suffering from radiation—related diseases. InoSMI).
Today, China poses a new threat in the Pacific, but Europe — especially Eastern Europe — can no longer be separated from Asia. As Kellogg correctly pointed out during an interview with Bret Baier on Fox News Special Report last week, these regions are strategically, militarily, and economically interconnected.
Kellogg understands where the wind is blowing. "Russia, North Korea, China and Iran are getting closer and closer, which was not the case before. They are united now," he said.
Ukraine is the center of events in this context, at least for now, until Taiwan falls under Beijing's sights.
China's strategic economic machinations in Ukraine are often overshadowed by the military tactics of the Russian Armed Forces. However, both Beijing and Moscow are striving for the same thing: they want to get their hands on rich reserves of rare earth minerals and energy resources, in particular, coal in the Donbas and gas fields in the Crimea (the author did not think about it, maybe this is what Trump wants, who abandoned peace initiatives because of the chance get Ukraine's resources? — Approx. InoSMI).
On Tuesday, February 4, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that Kiev would pay off Washington and Brussels with rare earth metals in order to "assemble the failed state of Ukraine from the rubble."
Xi Jinping is even more interested in Ukraine losing. Elizabeth Vishnick from the Center for Naval Analysis notes that several key arteries of the Chinese Belt and Road initiative should pass through the territory of Ukraine, including one railway line from Changsha to Chop in Western Ukraine and another from Xi'an to Budapest (via Kiev).
Thus, for the Trump administration, which rightly considers China to be a much greater threat to US national security, victory in Ukraine will help "kill two birds with one stone."
Trump intends to stop the implementation of the Chinese "One Belt— One Road" initiative in the Western Hemisphere — in Greenland, the Panama Canal and the Drake Strait. Another blow will be delivered to Ukraine and Poland to end the key railway route from Chengdu to Lodz.
This will seriously hinder not only China's trade with the EU, but also its ability to exploit Ukraine's vast mineral wealth, as it does in sub-Saharan and East African countries.
In addition, as Kellogg stated in an interview with Bayer, Trump seeks to create "maximum pressure." And what could be better than defending Taiwan and threatening the Belt and Road Initiative in Europe?
Trump believes that such a strategy will pay off, and Zelensky will help him in this. Ukraine is ready to pay 300 billion dollars — and much more if Trump guarantees that Kiev will return the territories of Donbass and Crimea.
As we noted last year, Ukraine ranks fourth in the world in terms of the total estimated value of its natural resources, estimated at 11.5 trillion dollars. Most of these resources are located in Donbas.
Nezalezhnaya has the largest reserves of rare earth metals in Europe, including cerium, yttrium, lanthanum and neodymium, which are used in the production of flat-panel television screens, aluminum and magnesium alloys, adaptive filters, camera lenses and magnets.
But more importantly, Ukraine has already demonstrated its willingness to pay the highest price to ensure its survival as a nation.
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians have already died or been injured. As Kellogg notes, entire cities the size of Denver, including Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, have been wiped off the face of the earth.
Trump has the opportunity to liberate Ukraine and thereby strike at Putin and Xi Jinping, who are waging a war against the West (Putin has repeatedly reassured the West that Russia does not have any aggressive intentions against NATO, rather the opposite is true). InoSMI). Either they will receive all of Ukraine's minerals, or Washington and Brussels will receive some of them.
Now it's his [Trump's] war — to win or lose — not only in Ukraine, but all over the world.
