by PETER SCHWARZ
The US and Russian foreign ministers are meeting in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine and the restoration of bilateral relations. These talks have nothing to do with achieving “peace.” Rather, they are another step in a global conflict that threatens humanity with nuclear annihilation.
The Trump administration exposed the real stakes last week when it sent Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to Kiev to propose a deal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky: In exchange for past and future US support, Ukraine would cede half of its rare earth, lithium and titanium deposits—worth half a trillion dollars—to the US. Since the majority of these resources are in Russian-occupied territory, Trump needs an agreement with Moscow.
Whether such a deal will materialize remains uncertain. Washington has repeatedly mixed offers with threats of military escalation and economic sanctions. Trump is also pressuring Putin for concessions in the Middle East, where the US is preparing to expel Palestinians from Gaza and launch an attack on Iran, while also seeking to weaken Russia’s alliance with China, the central target of the US war drive. As Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated last week, “The US is prioritizing deterring war with China in the Pacific.”
Zelensky, who initially proposed the resource deal, hesitated to accept Trump’s mafia-style demand, as it would effectively reduce Ukraine to an American colony. He also relies on support from the European imperialist powers, which are outraged by Trump’s attempt to cut a deal with Putin at their expense.
“According to my calculations, we have provided Ukraine with more than €134 billion,” European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told Reuters. “That makes us the biggest international donor.” Kallas spoke bluntly about what she thinks of Trump’s course: “It cannot be that Russia gets the Ukrainian territories, the US gets the natural resources and Europe foots the bill for peacekeeping,” she told Germany’s Tagesschau news program. “That doesn’t work. We have to mobilize our strength now.”
This dispute—not concerns over “democracy” or “Western values”—is the root of the growing rift between the US and its European allies. Under Biden, the US and Europe coordinated their war against Russia. Now, European powers fear being cheated out of the spoils by Trump.
Recent actions by the Trump administration have made clear its contempt for its European “allies.” First, Defense Secretary Hegseth questioned US security commitments to Europe and proposed a peace deal with Russia that would abandon NATO’s previous deman
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