'Nothing to prevent' Putin from taking advantage of Trump in Ukraine deal: ex-official

With Volodymyr Zelenskyy slated to meet in Washington, D.C. with Donald Trump on Friday, the Ukrainian president may have no choice to accede to the U.S. president's demand for access to precious minerals as part of a peace plan which could open the door for Vladimir Putin to do as he wants.

That is the opinion of a former U.S. State Department official who believes there will either be not be enough constraints in the deal on the Russian strongman or he may attempt to proceed with new invasion plans at a later time.

As David Smith wrote for the Guardian, there are major similarities to Trump's attempt to shakedown Zelenskyy in the same manner as he did in his first term that led to the president's first impeachment.

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Noting that Max Bergmann of the Center for Strategic and International Studies stated, “Ukraine is far, far more desperate than it was in 2019. We have a country that is being assaulted and pummeled by the Russians every minute, so the stakes could not be higher for Ukraine," Smith turned to former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Joel Rubin to predict how the deal could play out if an agreement is reached between the American and the Ukrainian president.

According to Rubin, the devil will be in the details.

"We don’t know yet about any personal benefit per se to the president but we do know that he’s using the threat of withholding of military aid and American support for Ukraine in this process as a pressure tactic to extract concessions. That’s typically what you do with your adversary," he explained. "In this case also it’s not at all clear who would get the money. How does this work? How does this advance America’s global standing and our economy?”

Having said that, he noted the deal might only be a speedbump to Putin's expansionist plans with Trump, a fan of the Russian president, rolling over since he got his minerals deal.

“Who’s to say that Russia wouldn’t decide they’re going to invade Ukraine but before that they’re going to call the United States and say, we’re going to invade and take over Ukraine but that minerals deal you have with Ukraine, we will maintain and we will do it with you? Then they go and invade and the US says, well, as long as we have our deal, we’re OK with it," he suggested before warning, "There’s nothing to prevent that.”

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