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1. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's meeting with Donald Trump ended in disaster yesterday, after the two leaders clashed in an extraordinary exchange before the world's media at the White House over the war with Russia. Zelenskiy had seen the meeting in the Oval Office as an opportunity to convince the United States not to side with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who ordered the invasion of Ukraine three years ago. Instead U.S. President Trump and Vice President JD Vance laid into Zelenskiy, saying he showed disrespect, driving relations with Kyiv's most important wartime ally to a new low. The Ukrainian leader was told to leave, a U.S. official said. An agreement between Ukraine and the United States to jointly develop Ukraine's rich natural resources, which Kyiv and its European allies had hoped would usher in better relations, was left unsigned and in limbo. (Source: reuters.com)
2. Nikkei Asia:
Developing rare earth projects in Ukraine in the foreseeable future is complete "fiction," with hurdles ranging from uncertainty over reserves to a lack of processing capacity outside of China, industry veterans say, with one expert describing U.S. President Donald Trump's plan to recoup war aid by exploiting the partially occupied country's natural resources as "absurd”…..
Experts are very skeptical, particularly about rare earth elements (REE), with doubts that Ukraine even has viable deposits to mine, as claims of reserves are based on exploration done during the Soviet era.
"There are no known rare earth deposits in the Ukraine, period," said John Mavrogenes, a professor of economic geology at the Australian National University, calling the claim "fiction" and the proposal "absurd."
"I assume that these people talking about it don't know the difference between a rare earth and any other critical mineral," he added. (Source: asia.nikkei.com)
3. A Trump administration official said later on Friday that all U.S. aid to Ukraine — including the final shipments of ammunition and equipment authorized and paid for during the Biden administration — could be canceled imminently…..After Friday’s spectacle in the Oval Office, the Trump administration official said the president might decide to end even the indirect support being provided by the U.S., which includes other types of military financing, intelligence sharing, training for Ukrainian troops and pilots, and hosting a call center that manages international aid at a U.S. military base in Germany. (Source: nytimes.com)
4. The Washington Post (Karen DeYoung et alia) :
“(T)he question of what happens to U.S. support has been looming over everything,” said Andrew Weiss, a Russia specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Policy. “Europe doesn’t have the resources or unity to backfill. … It doesn’t have the intelligence capability crucial to the lethality of the Ukrainian campaign.”
Now, Weiss said, a ceasefire on Russia’s terms has become more possible “because Ukraine is going to be worried that its relationship with the United States is in tatters and they better find a way to get the best deal they can before Russia’s advantages become even more stark for them.” (Source: washingtonpost.com)
5. Eurointelligence (2/20/2025):
Ukraine cannot conduct this war without the active support of the US. The US provides Ukraine with critical intelligence cover – needed in both offensive and defensive operations. The EU could step in eventually, but not immediately. We conclude from this that Ukraine has no viable way to stand up to Trump. Peace or war is a matter for Trump alone to decide on. (Source: eurointelligence.com)
6. Bloomberg:
Friday’s extraordinary Oval Office humiliation of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy by (President Trump) and his vice president, JD Vance, exceeded anything Russia could have expected.
The response out of Moscow was swift. Former President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia’s security council, said Trump told Zelenskiy “the truth to his face” before adding: “But it’s not enough - military aid should be stopped.” On the X social media platform, Medvedev called Zelenskiy an “insolent pig.”
Trump and Vance “wiped their feet on Zelenskiy like a doormat,” said Alexander Dugin, a political scientist in Moscow who advocates a “Russian World” ideology to justify Kremlin expansion. “Game over.”
Kirill Dmitriev, the one-time Goldman Sachs banker turned influential Putin envoy, posted a video on X of the heated exchange between Trump and Zelenskiy with a one-word description: “Historic.”
The official response has been more circumspect so far. One official close to the Kremlin said that Russia has no influence on the US. Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov didn’t reply to questions seeking comments.
But many in the Kremlin still don’t trust what’s happening in Washington. Russian leadership doesn’t fully understand Trump’s strategy and is wary traps, a person close to the Kremlin said earlier this week.
“In Russia, they are also in shock and, of course, they are very happy,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, said in a phone interview. “Putin is lucky, but there will be no automatic success, no automatic victory”. (Source: bloomberg.com)
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