Much as I hate this, I will give credit where credit is due. Apparently, Zelensky is coming to Washington to sign off on a deal with Trump. The deal will involve the US having access to Ukraine’s rare earth minerals in exchange for reconstruction of Ukraine as part of the wider negotiations with Russia. The deal was supposedly include security guarantees for Ukraine. Details are not available as to what this means yet.

This agreement came to fruition after days of hard negotiation. A Ukrainian official put it this way,

“everything unacceptable was taken out of the text and it is now more clearly spelt out how this agreement will contribute to Ukraine’s security and peace.”

This is what Donald Trump had to say about the agreement.

“I hear that (Zelensky is) coming on Friday. Certainly it’s OK with me if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me. And I understand that’s a big deal, very big deal.”

It is a very big deal if it comes to fruition. Trump said that Ukraine would receive,

“$350 billion and lots of equipment, military equipment, and the right to fight on.”

That last part is confusing, about the right to fight on. While these negotiations are going on, there’s also talk of bringing in peacekeepers to Ukraine. Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. stated,

“This approach, which is being imposed by the Europeans, primarily France, but also the British, is aimed at what I just mentioned: to further fuel the conflict and to stop any attempts to calm it down.”

This appears to contradict Trump’s claim that Russia is going to go along with the deal. At first blush, Zelensky coming to Washington appears to be a major achievement towards ending this war. If Trump pulls this off as much as I hate to say this too, he would be a strong candidate for a Nobel Peace prize. Yes, I said that.

But there are conflicting messages here, including Trump statement that Ukraine will have the right to fight on. As we all know, with Trump, anything can and will happen and there will be many more WTF moments to come.

That’s all I have for today.