British newspaper exposes Ukraine's plans with US President-elect Donald Trump, pouring money into weapons manufacturing

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has proposed two points drafted specifically for Mr. Donald Trump and included them in the “victory plan”.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump in September 2024 in Washington. (Source: Reuters)

The Financial Times ( FT - UK) on November 12 quoted sources as saying that in the plan presented in September in New York to Mr. Trump, then a Republican presidential candidate, President Zelensky proposed replacing part of the US military in Europe with Ukrainian soldiers and allowing Washington access to the country's natural resources.

The plan emphasizes that Ukraine is home to billions of dollars worth of natural resources and critical metals: uranium, titanium, lithium, graphite.

President Zelensky proposed that Washington and the European Union (EU) sign a “special agreement on jointly protecting the important resources existing in Ukraine, jointly investing and using the respective economic potential”.

According to the Ukrainian leader, during the conflict with Russia, the country's army gained experience in using Western weapons and coordinating with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces. According to Kiev's plan, Ukrainian units can partially replace the US armed forces in Europe.

Ukraine’s victory plan includes five public and three secret points, including quickly inviting Kiev to join NATO, allowing further strikes deep into Russian territory, deploying “non-nuclear deterrence measures” in Ukraine, strengthening sanctions, investing in the Eastern European country’s metals, and using the experience of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (VSU) to strengthen NATO’s defense capabilities.

The FT noted that President Zelensky's plan reflects concerns among Ukrainian and European officials that Mr Trump could quickly reach a peace deal with Russia.

On the same day, Ukrainian Minister of Strategic Industries German Smetanin announced that the country will spend more than 55 billion hryvnia (more than 1.3 billion USD) on the production of weapons and military equipment, the application of new technologies and the improvement of the capacity of defense enterprises in 2025, 3.5 billion hryvnia more than in 2024.

In addition, the government will allocate 500 million hryvnia to support a cheap credit program for defense enterprises. The program allows producers to borrow capital at an interest rate of 5% per year, with the remaining interest being covered by the state.

In the draft state budget for 2025, which was recently approved by the Ukrainian cabinet, the country's security remains the main priority. The budget is expected to allocate 2,225 billion hryvnia for this purpose. All tax revenues will be used only for the needs of security and defense forces.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/bao-anh-phoi-bay-toan-tinh-cua-ukraine-voi-tong-thong-my-dac-cu-donald-trump-do-manh-tien-vao-che-tao-vu-khi-293538.html