The United States wants to be paid in exchange for helping the country fend off an invader.
Ukraine is nearing a deal to hand over a portion of its revenues from natural resources to the United States, under heavy pressure from the Trump administration.
The agreement, in its current form, would not include any explicit security guarantees to deter Russian aggression. The White House has argued that the mere existence of American economic interests should be sufficient for Ukraine, which is facing a harsh reality: The United States wants to be paid in exchange for helping the country fend off an invader.
“What better could you have for Ukraine than to be in an economic partnership with the United States?” Mike Waltz, the U.S. national security adviser, said on Friday.
Mr. Trump has long demanded that NATO and other allies contribute more to their own defense. But the minerals agreement would represent a major escalation in his transactional approach to foreign policy. The United States was once seen as the world’s policeman, but to many analysts it now seems more like an extortionate Mafia kingpin.
The explicit demand for Ukraine’s mineral wealth while the country is in dire straits has the “feel of a protection racket,” said Virginia Page Fortna, a political scientist at Columbia University who is a leading expert on peace agreements.