What Putin wants and what America will do

If I had a penny for every time I have been told that Russian President Vladimir Putin only wants respect. Or that he is only interested in eastern Ukraine. Or that if Kyiv is only denied NATO membership then he will call off the tanks.

Well, in the last seven days US President Donald Trump has given Putin all this and more.

And, though it is still early days, so far the war is showing no sign of slowing. And what has the man who wrote The Art of the Deal asked for in exchange for all this diplomatic largesse? Absolutely nothing.

In fact, the only substantive demand Trump has made so far is of the Ukrainians. Last week Washington sent Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Treasury, to Kyiv with an extraordinary demand.

Bessent presented President Volodymyr Zelensky with a document to sign which would hand over the rights to half of all Ukraine’s rare earth minerals – of which it has trillions of dollars worth – as recompense for weaponry Washington provided under the Biden administration.