US ‘demands control' from Ukraine of key pipeline carrying Russian gas
The US has demanded control of a crucial pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe, according to reports, in a move described as a colonial shakedown.
US and Ukrainian officials met on Friday to discuss White House proposals for a minerals deal. Donald Trump wants Kyiv to hand over its natural resources as 'payback' in return for weapons delivered by the previous Biden administration.
Talks have become increasingly acrimonious, Reuters said. The latest US draft is more 'maximalist' than the original version from February, which proposed giving Washington $500bn worth of rare metals, as well as oil and gas.
Citing a source close to the talks, the news agency said the most recent document includes a demand that the US government's International Development Finance Corporation take control of the natural gas pipeline.
It runs from the town of Sudzha in western Russia to the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, about 750 miles (1,200km) away, on the border with the EU and Slovakia. Built in Soviet times, the pipeline is a key piece of national infrastructure and a major energy route.
On 1 January, Ukraine cut off the supply of gas when its five-year contract with the Russian state energy giant Gazprom expired. Both countries had previously earned hundreds of millions of euros in transit fees, including during the first thee years of full-scale war.
Volodymyr Landa, a senior economist with the Centre for Economic Strategy, a Kyiv thinktank, said the Americans were out for 'all they can get'. Their bullying 'colonial-type' demands had little chance of being accepted by Kyiv, he predicted.
Last autumn, Volodymyr Zelenskyy proposed giving the US access to Ukraine's underdeveloped mineral sector. He envisaged a deal which would see the incoming Trump administration supply Ukraine with weapons, in return for future profits from joint investments.
Instead, Trump has refused to give security commitments or military support but wants the minerals anyway. Last week he complained Zelenskyy was trying to 'back out of an agreement' and said Ukraine's president would have 'big problems' if he failed to sign.
Speaking to journalists on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he was ready to do a deal to modernise his country but that Ukraine could only agree if there was 'parity' between the two sides, with revenues split '50-50'.
'I am just defending what belongs to Ukraine. It should be beneficial for both the United States and Ukraine. This is the right thing to do,' Zelenskyy said. The US Treasury confirmed 'technical' talks were ongoing.
Meanwhile, the US special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said his remarks over a possible partition of Ukraine had been misinterpreted. In an interview with the Times, Kellogg said the country could be divided 'almost like the Berlin after world war two' as part of a peace deal.
Writing on X, Kellogg said he was referring to 'a post-cease fire resiliency force in support of Ukraine's sovereignty', Under this plan, Russian troops would remain in territory already seized by Moscow, with British and French forces stationed in Kyiv and in other parts of the country.
On Friday, Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff held talks with Vladimir Putin in Saint Petersburg. Witkoff's reported solution to the conflict was to give Russia the four Ukrainian provinces it is demanding – including territory which Ukraine controls, and which is home to 1 million people.
Meanwhile, at a meeting of the Ukraine defence contact group on Friday, Kyiv's allies announced a record €21bn (£18.2bn) in additional military help. They accused Putin of dragging his feet over a 30-day ceasefire deal which Ukraine has accepted.
Early on Saturday, Russia carried out further air attacks against Ukrainian civilian targets. Three warehouses were destroyed in Kyiv, with two people injured. The Kremlin has fired 70 missiles and 2,200 drones at Ukraine since the 11 March US ceasefire proposal, Ukrainian officials said.
Zelenskyy paid tribute on Saturday to a 26-year-old pilot, captain Pavlo Ivanov, who was killed during an F-16 combat mission. Ukraine's small airforce 'heroically' defend Ukraine from Russian missiles and drones, and supported ground operations, he said.
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