Here’s why Trump wants to make Ukraine a US economic colony. Kyiv holds $15 trillion in natural resources which would help break the US’s dependence on China. Donald Trump made no effort to disguise the potential threat to Ukraine if Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s president, refused to cough up for American protection. “They may make a deal. They may not make a deal,” the US president told Fox News. “They may be Russian someday, or they may not be Russian someday.”
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His price? As The Telegraph revealed this week, it is an incredibly steep one. The US has demanded what amounts to an economic colonisation of Ukraine, with significant rights over its mineral resources, oil and gas resources, ports and other infrastructure.

The demands have caused panic in Kyiv and amount to far more than what officials are willing to agree to.
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According to a copy of the US demands revealed by The Telegraph on Monday, Washington is demanding that it gets first refusal on all deposits within the country.
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“He is making a petty criminal’s play, like coming into a shop and saying: Nice little business you’ve got here, it would be a shame if something happened to it.

“It is an administration which is behaving like an organised crime syndicate.”