Maybe Zelenskiy Should Be Writing the Art of the Deal

Maybe it’s Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy who should be writing books about the art of negotiation.

For a while, it looked as though he’d made a huge miscalculation by highlighting the opportunities available to allies in exploiting his nation’s natural resources. The idea was to interest the famously transactional Donald Trump in Ukraine’s defense, and it seemed a clever ruse at the time. In the event, it almost blew up a military relationship critical to Ukraine’s survival, but the deal as now at least partially agreed looks like a good save.

We don’t yet have the published text, and — according to a Ukrainian news agency that saw the documents — an important further “technical” protocol remains to be signed. Still, if the agreement is as described by both Ukrainskaya Pravda and Yulia Svyrydenko — the economy minister who drove the final negotiation — it at least averted disaster and could serve a little of the original purpose.

The neocolonial terms of exploitation in previously leaked US drafts that Trump clearly expected Zelenskiy to sign on the spot — because the American president exploded in anger when that didn’t happen — are no longer there. The US won’t have legal jurisdiction over the joint fund to be created, isn’t in full control but must make decisions by consensus in a 50/50 arrangement and won’t own any assets. Only future investments are to be included.

Nor will US companies get right of first refusal on all projects, a provision that would have clashed with Ukraine’s plans for joining the European Union. In fact, as described, the deal now includes a clause that allows for revision if terms do prove to contravene EU membership requirements.