Trump’s Bold Strategy to Get a Ukraine War Peace Deal

Two days after inking a deal to share future revenues from Ukrainian mineral deposits, the United States is pressuring Ukraine and Russia to come to the negotiating table with more realistic demands of their own to bring an end to the war.

At a Friday press conference, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said American diplomats will not “fly around the world at the drop of a hat” to mediate in conversations unlikely to yield results. 

“We will continue to help, but we will no longer fly around the world as mediators in meetings,” Bruce reiterated. “Now it is up to the two sides, the time has come when they must present and develop concrete ideas on how to end this conflict. It will be up to them.”

On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sat beside Ukrainian economy minister Yulia Svyrydenko to put pen to paper on the minerals deal in which the United States and Ukraine will share future mineral revenues. The Ukrainian share, America hopes, will go towards rebuilding Ukraine after a peace agreement is struck.

“This agreement signals clearly to Russia that the Trump administration is committed to a peace process centered on a free, sovereign and prosperous Ukraine over the long term,” Bessent said in a statement. “President Trump envisioned this partnership between the American people and the Ukrainian people to show both sides’ commitment to lasting peace and prosperity in Ukraine.”

“And to be clear, no state or person who financed or supplied the Russian war machine will be allowed to benefit from the reconstruction of Ukraine,” added the treasury secretary, who has sanction enforcement powers.

A senior treasury official told The Daily Signal that the minerals deal “is a fully collaborative partnership between our nations.” 

“This partnership represents the United States taking an economic stake in securing a free, peaceful, and sovereign future for Ukraine,” the official continued. “This agreement will also strengthen the strategic partnership between the United States and Ukraine for long-term reconstruction and modernization, in response to the large-scale destruction caused by Russia’s full-scale invasion.”

The deal is a massive incentive for both the Ukrainians and Russians to get serious about a peace deal.

Ukraine has repeatedly brought maximalist demands to the negotiating table, demanding the return of large swaths of Ukrainian territory (where large Russian populations already lived before the war) and Western security guarantees. All this despite the fact that Ukraine has been functionally a client state of the United States almost since the war began. Ukraine would be bankrupt without American aid, which Trump made abundantly clear during the infamous Oval Office meeting in February with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The deal incentivizes the Ukrainians to end the war because the minerals deal is set to really kick in only after a peace agreement is reached.

Meanwhile, Trump has taken a harsher tone with Russian President Vladimir Putin the past few weeks. In response to Russian strikes on Kyiv last week, the president said in a Truth Social post that he is “not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing.”

“Vladimir, STOP!” the president implored.

Trump recognizes that Putin has spent a sizable amount of political capital in the war. While the current status quo would likely result in a Russian victory, the question for Putin is at what cost. It appears the minerals deal holds the status quo on the military aid and assistance front. But the evolution of the deal, from sole U.S. control over the deposits to a 50-50 share that simultaneously provides Ukraine future capital and adds a tangible U.S. interest in Ukraine likely increases that cost to Putin. Russia might consider dropping its own unworkable demands, such as complete Ukrainian disarmament.

At the same time, the administration has restrained from offering Kyiv security guarantees in the minerals deal. NATO membership remains off the table. And while European powers have suggested they want to set up installations that reassure Ukraine of its security, the Americans committed nothing of the sort despite, as the treasury official put it, now having “skin in the game and is committed to Ukraine’s long-term success.”

Though it may be disheartening to hear that the war will persist, the real question is whether this strategy—pushing for direct talks between Ukraine and Russia—offers a quicker path to peace than the two belligerents making insane demands at endless, performative diplomatic roundtables in cities like Istanbul, Doha, or Riyadh.

The post Trump’s Bold Strategy to Get a Ukraine War Peace Deal appeared first on The Daily Signal.