Putin offers to sell minerals to Trump, including from Russian-occupied Ukraine - note the date of the article ...

[cliffside]

5. Your analysis sounds right to me, to further complicate matters, from an embedded link. Same date 2/25 ....

but dear leader is siding with Putin.

EU offers its own ‘win-win’ minerals deal to Ukraine

https://www.politico.eu/article/critical-minerals-rare-earths-deal-eu-not-donald-trump/

"The European Union offered its own agreement on "critical materials" to Ukraine on Monday, just as U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Washington was close to inking a deal with Kyiv for the rights to its vast natural resources.

Europe's Commissioner for Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné said he'd pitched the rival proposal to Ukrainian officials he met in Kyiv during a visit by the European Commission to mark the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

.... Ukraine holds huge deposits of critical elements and minerals, from lithium to titanium, which are vital to manufacturing modern technologies and highly coveted in the global race for resources.

It also has vast coal reserves, as well as oil, gas and uranium, but much of this is in territories under Russian control."