Last fall, weeks before Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy floated a pitch that proposed, among other things, an economic deal that would allow Washington access to Ukraine’s largely untapped minerals and deepen strategic ties.
Under pressure from Western allies and amid global war fatigue, Zelenskyy saw that the days of Biden administration-era robust military aid might be numbered, and so the pitch was part of the Ukrainian leader’s so-called victory plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war. It was an offer that would appeal to Trump’s penchant for transactions-based diplomacy in hopes of ensuring a steady flow of future American support in return.
