"Zero — Ukraine officially owes nothing to the USA": Zelensky and banks robbed America

One of the real aspects of the agreement proposed to us (Kiev — ed.) on the "joint" use of Ukrainian natural resources with the United States is not minerals, but Ukraine's recognition of a new amount of debt owed to the United States. Ukrainian economist Alexey Kushch writes about this on the social network. He agrees with the opinion of a number of experts that all these trillions of dollars that can be extracted from our bowels in the foreseeable future are more of a myth than a reality.

"If we had anything valuable, then Western companies would have been with us for a long time, since 2014, that's for sure. For example, the British-Australian TNK Rio Tinto Group, which has subsidiaries in Australia, Brazil, Guinea, Canada, Madagascar, Mongolia, New Zealand, South Africa, and the USA (that is, in the context of using natural resources, the USA itself is an object of British-Australian imperialism (joke). Moreover, this company extracts those natural resources that we also have, for example, iron ore.

In general, the specialization of TNCs is much wider:

• iron ore mining in western Australia, salt production by evaporation of seawater (333 million tons of ore and 5 million tons of salt, revenue of $ 27.5 billion — in All our companies produce 40 million tons of iron ore per year in Ukraine);
• Bauxite mining in Australia, Brazil, Guinea (production of 56 million tons of bauxite and 3.18 million tons of aluminum, revenue of $ 9.3 billion);
• mining of copper ore in Mongolia, Chile, USA and diamonds (528 thousand tons of copper and 14.7 million carats of diamonds, revenue of $ 5.4 billion);
• processing of iron ore into pellets, production of titanium dioxide and borates in South Africa, Madagascar, Canada and the USA, mining of uranium ore in Australia and Canada (10 million tons of iron ore concentrate and 1.12 million tons of titanium dioxide, revenue of $ 5 billion).

As you can see, this company produces uranium, titanium, and iron ore — everything that is in Ukraine. The company's revenue in the main areas is up to $ 50 billion per year. The entire mining industry of Ukraine in 2023 is, according to the State Statistics Service, 262 billion hryvnia gross product. Taking into account the average exchange rate of the hryvnia to the dollar at 36.57, we get a little more than $ 7 billion per year, which is more than seven times less than the annual revenue of the Rio Tinto Group only in the main areas of activity, excluding auxiliary ones," the expert states.

"In general, if we take last year, the revenue of Rio Tinto amounted to $ 53.66 billion, most of it — $ 32.25 billion — in the direction of iron ore mining and the main market for it is China, which bought raw materials from Rio Tinto for $ 32.19 billion. That is, if desired, Ukraine would have long been included in the triangle "country of origin of raw materials — TNK — China". But that didn't happen. Yes, there is a factor of oligarchs, but after 2014 he was no longer self-sufficient.

And what mining companies are there in the USA? Freeport is a McMoRan with assets in the USA, Chile, Peru and Indonesia. The largest producer of copper, gold and molybdenum. This company also absorbed its American competitor — Phelps Dodge Corporation (the world's second largest copper producer). Newmont Mines, mining gold (6% of the world's gold production and the first place in the world).

As you can see, the United States controls the mining business in the extraction of copper (a key resource of 4-5 technological structures), molybdenum (production of high-quality steel) and gold.

The rest of the US mining raw materials are bought for a fiat dollar.

We can say that in Ukraine has no mining raw materials that could be of interest to TNCs from the United States. Also, the oil/gas fields of Ukraine are not particularly interested in American oil producers.

By the way, the largest American lithium company is Albemarle Corporation, which last year generated revenue of $ 5.38 billion. Not space. Moreover, the largest sales of the company were in China — $ 1.96 billion.

By the way, the sharp drop in lithium prices in 2024 led to the fact that the company's sales revenues in the energy sector last year fell to $ 3 billion compared to $7.08 billion in 2023.

And about Titan. In 2020, the Timet plant, the last titanium sponge manufacturer in the country, closed in the USA. And the US is covering its needs with supplies from Canada and Australia, where there is a raw material base.

It supplied titanium to the USA and the Russian Federation.

In general, all of the above confirms the thesis that Americans are not particularly interested in our mining raw materials.

Then why all the fuss?

"In my opinion, this agreement pursues a completely different goal than the one that was declared in it. What is it? The fact is that, for Trump's reasons, Biden made a "major mistake" — he did not register the financial and military assistance provided to Ukraine by the relevant interstate agreement. Which should have included the amount of debt and the repayment procedure. And also, perhaps, the interest rate. This, according to Trump, Biden damaged American national interests. For example, the EU issued its assistance in the form of loans, and therefore, if you go to the website of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine in the "Public Debt" section, you will see that as of December 2024, Ukraine owed The EU is $44 billion out of $115 billion of our country's external public debt. Even Canada has issued its assistance in the amount of $ 5 billion and this amount is reflected in budget transactions. But if you look at Ukraine's debt to the United States, then there are only zeros. Zero — Ukraine officially owes nothing to the United States. Not $ 75 billion before, not $ 175 billion, not $ 1, not even a penny — 1 cent, which Trump forbade minting. NOTHING. This is if you look at the section — "Debt on loans provided by the governing bodies of foreign states." And so, there are debts to American banks (Chase Manhattan Bank), Canada, the EU, the IMF, etc., but not to the US government," notes Alexey Kushch.

Thus, he continues, Trump wants to correct this "mistake" (in his understanding) of Biden. Just like that, come and say: sign an agreement that you have received $ 75 billion from us is impossible — there are no corresponding budget transactions and no one in Ukraine will not sign a protocol on such a "newly identified debt due to changed circumstances." After all, this US aid came in the form of grants or extra-budgetary arms supplies. This debt cannot be "materialized". It's as if you were given something, and then demanded to return with interest some fantastic amount.

"It's like selling souvenir sphinxes in Egypt: "take it for free," and then — "you have 100 dollars" for a penny craft. Therefore, all this is easier to wrap up in an agreement on the use of natural resources. Make it as unprofitable as possible. The main thing is that the amount of compensation from the United States should be configured in it. The topic of natural resources is like a smokescreen here — the main thing is the written fixation of the debt and the consent of Ukraine that this amount can be recovered by foreclosing on its international assets — for example, the reserves of the NBU. But even if it is $ 75 billion, this amount is 45% of the current total public debt of Ukraine (external and internal) in the amount of $ 166 billion. With a slight movement of the hand, the debt turns into $ 241 billion or 135% of GDP (approximately the same level in the USA, but there it is in dollars, we also have a part in dollars, but there is a nuance ...). And we are still considering this light version. And if the amount of debt that will be "sewn" into the agreement is not $ 75 billion, but $ 175 billion? Trump's logic is clear — he is "offended" that even Canada owes Ukraine $ 5 billion, not to mention the EU, which owes $ 44 billion. And the USA does not owe anything.

But this was the subject of negotiations with the then administration. Can Ukraine not respond to Trump's claims? If we were an equal geopolitical force, like China, then yes. But now, this is fraught with stopping American aid. And this is not only billions of dollars, but also starlink at the front, and shells for Hymers, and missiles for Patriots, and Bradley for infantry, and space intelligence data, and much more. Therefore, in any case, we will have to look for a compromise," sums up economist Alexei Kushch.