Ukraine’s sovereignty was violated long before Trump

Author: Peter Korotaev, Peter Korotaev Independent journalist
\ Published on: 06/07/2025 | 00:00:00

AI Summary:
\ On June 16, the Ukrainian government started the process for opening bids for foreign companies to mine lithium deposits in the country. The bid is part of a minerals deal signed in April that is supposed to give the US access to Ukraine’s mineral wealth. Trump’s demand for access to Ukrainian mineral wealth was slammed by many as infringing on Ukrainian sovereignty. Joe Biden threatened then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko with blocking $1bn in US aid if he did not dismiss the Ukrainian prosecutor general, whom Washington opposed. In 2020, the parliament passed a bill introduced by Zelenskyy that removed a ban on the sale of private farmland. Widespread protests against the move were muffled by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. In 2020, Oleksandr Tupytskyi was sanctioned by the US, again over corruption accusations. This facilitated his removal shortly thereafter. A 2021 poll showed nearly 40 percent of Ukrainians did not believe their country was fully independent. In 2016, US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt urged the country to become an “agricultural superpower” Ukraine’s industrial output collapsed under the blows of closed export markets, Western competition and neoliberal economic policies at home. By 2019, automobile production had shrunk to 31 percent of its 2012 level, train wagon production to 29.7 percent, machine tool production to 68.2 percent and metallurgical production to 70.8 percent. In 2020, the government under the newly elected Zelenskyy tried to intervene. It proposed new legislation to protect Ukrainian industry, Bill 3739. What the US president did differently was show to the public how Western leaders bully the Ukrainian government to get what they want. What the US President did differently.

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