Apparently, Trump’s next one hundred days are starting off much better than the first. Granted it’s a very low bar. On Wednesday, April 30, Ukraine and America signed something that is akin to an agreement. Both sides were encouraged. The Ukrainian side said:
“Truly, this is a strategic deal for the creation of an investment partner fund,” said Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. “This is truly an equal and good international deal on joint investment in the development and restoration of Ukraine between the governments of the United States and Ukraine.”
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Ukraine’s economy minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, flew to Washington on Wednesday to help finalize the deal.
“Together with the United States, we are creating the Fund that will attract global investment to our country,” she said in a post on X after the signing.
On the American side, naturally it’s all about Trump. But nevertheless, there is some success in Washington.
“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,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in a press release. “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.”
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Whatever the reading or the details of the agreement, Ukraine and the United States are now jointly aligned in the future of Ukraine. In order to protect its investment, I assume, America has to supply arms and share intelligence.
Furthermore, inasmuch as Russia the aggressor is the only force that can interfere in this mutually beneficial relationship, Russia now becomes potentially an enemy of the United States, irrespective of the lack of proximity or the natural barriers such as the ocean.
A better or fuller understanding will come once the actual agreement is available for review. However, for Trump, someone who has no moral compass, a vested financial interest is very significant and, frankly, the only type of interest that a “businessman” like Trump can understand. He now has a business interest in Ukraine whether that interest is as President of the United States or as Donald Trump the businessman is irrelevant.
Politics is the art of the possible. Under the circumstances this was a “perfect” resolution of the many differences of America under Trump and Ukraine. There are even more significant or equally important ramifications.
The US Senate, under Republican leadership guided by Trump’s friend Senator Lyndsey Graham, will now move to sanction countries that are trading with Russia. China and North Korea aside, India with an upcoming war with Pakistan in Kashmir has to be circumspect.
Additionally, the price of oil, due to Trump’s total disregard for the environment, will drop even further from its current price of around $65 per barrel. That will be simply overwhelming for Putin’s economy, which is built on resources rather than production.
Any agreement is good when both parties are equally satisfied or dissatisfied. In this case satisfaction will be the glue that holds this deal together.
There is so much more that has to happen in US-Ukraine relations, but in the opinion of one skeptic and unbridled Trump detractor, this is a “perfect” – as per Trumpian language – beginning to his next 100 days.
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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