“In order to protect the national interests of Ukraine and to formulate the position of Ukraine, taking into account the specifics of the legislation of the United States of America and Ukraine, in the course of preparing an agreed position of Ukraine on the process of negotiations with the American side to conclude an agreement on the establishment of the Investment Fund for Reconstruction, to allocate UAH 113 million from the reserve fund of the State Budget for activities related to the provision of consulting services for the preparation of the draft of the said agreement.” — Government Decree No. 316 of April 8.
UAH 113 million is worth about $2.7 million, depending how and where you exchange, or the price of 5,400 first person kamikaze drones, which could have been acquired and used to blow up invading Russians. In blue-collar terms, this represents about a third of cash kicked back in 2023 to pick up thousands of cobblestones in downtown Kyiv, check them for imperfections, re-position and plunk them back down again.
Ukraine’s delegation to Washington, DC to hammer out the deal will be led by Deputy Prime Minister for European Integration and Justice Minister Olha Stefanishyna and Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister Iuliia Svidorenko.
On Thursday, Z sounded off about his talks with US Treasury Secretary Scott in Kyiv in February.
“I think Mr. [Scott] Bessent’s problem is in his approach. And what he came with, and he said: you have to sign this now... Tapping his finger on the agreement and saying ‘We have to sign it now. ’ To this I could only tell him, ‘Stop tapping your finger and let's talk about the subject.’ He probably expected a different dialogue, but I do not consider Ukraine a third-rate country. I believe that we should communicate as equals, despite the fact that I am the president and he is not the president. I believe that he is an American citizen, I am a citizen of Ukraine. And we must behave with respect for each other. This is what, I believe, I demonstrated to him during the dialogue, which he probably did not like in some sense,” Z said.
Althoug Scott is my favorite among Donald’s cabinet picks, Team USA’s tariff debacle made Americans $6 trillion poorer. So Scott is culpable. Z and his team of potent managers, including Olha and Iuliia, are basically hacks. We can only hope Howard [US Commerce Secretary Lutnick] is not involved in any shape or form. Z’s attempts to regain a degree of authority against the background of unremitting fuck ups usually fail, at Ukraine’s expense, so we expect the worse.
A plan presented in March would allow the U.S. to draw profits from Ukrainian projects across metals, oil, gas and other natural resources, as well as infrastructure projects including ports and pipelines.
Zelensky’s administration said it needs time to review the deal, angering an impatient Trump. “I see he’s trying to back out of the rare-earth deal. And if he does that, he’s got some problems. Big, big problems,” Trump said on Sunday. — Minerals Become Ultimate Bargaining Chip in Trump’s Diplomatic Deals. Ukraine, the DRC and Denmark are discussing mineral pacts with Washington (The Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2025)
Why dictatorships fail is the subject of Anne’s essay for The Atlantic. I would just add that sometimes, as is the case in Belarus, they fail very slowly, over one’s lifetime. That’s because they turn into police states, and then into totalitarian states, under which ordinary people must develop a sixth sense to anticipate what the regime expects of them. Or not, in which case they are rubbed out.
Fake push ups
Tip of the spear SecDef Pete disgraces himself on FoxNews.
Real — although not perfect — push ups look like this:
cf. Perfect push ups require touching your nose to the asphalt.
I listened to Lawrence, Janet and Joseph talk about Team USA’s tariff catastrophe123.
And, finally, self-referencing pricks at The Financial Times tell us that the US ambo will be departing.
Evaluating the US ambo’s tweets is about as stupid as pretending Russia didn’t invade Ukraine in 2014. Which is what The Financial Times did for eight years straight.