@Nonilex

"until Ukraine had *repaid* all American wartime #aid"

In any other circumstance, I would not imagine anyone agreeing to 'repay' anything (with Interest) - given by someone else in charge - for the period when that money previously had no strings attached. Future aid, maybe, but anything given before a new agreement, no.

But Trump is the sort of person who would see someone else give a gift, and months later ask why the recipient hadn't paid him for it.

#Treasury Secy #ScottBessent has been spearheading negotiations on the mineral deal. In an interview…, he said the #US had "passed along a completed document for the economic partnership….”

#Trump has said a #minerals deal will help secure a peace agreement by giving the United States a financial stake in Ukraine's future. He also sees it as America's way of earning back…[the #aid] it has given to #Ukraine…. Most of the aid funds were spent in the US.

…An earlier version of the deal, which #Ukraine agreed to in principle before #Zelensky visited the White House last month, had terms that appeared more favourable to Ukraine. It proposed a joint investment fund w/Ukraine contributing 50% of proceeds from future profits of state-owned natural resources.

Zelensky’s visit on Feb 28 ended w/ #Trump berating him in the Oval Office, later followed by several days during which Washington suspended all intelligence support & military #aid to Ukraine.

Multiple sources at #FSA who could not speak publicly for fear of #retribution said they were blindsided by the news.

Logistical challenges aside, the role of the office of Federal #Student #Aid as the administrator of the #StudentLoan portfolio is protected by #law. It's not clear how these responsibilities could be #legally moved w/o a vote of #Congress. [not that #Trump cares]

The federal #StudentLoan portfolio — which includes about $1.6T in loans for ~43M borrowers — is currently overseen by the #Education Dept's office of Federal #Student #Aid (#FSA). That office has been gutted by the recent raft of buyouts, early retirements & last week's broad reduction-in-force [#RIF].

It was not clear, based on #Trump's announcement, how or if the remaining employees & expertise at FSA would be transferred to the SBA.

It's not just about #aid - it's about a global health crisis caused by politics. Without prevention and treatment, new infections will increase, people will die, and the impact will be felt far beyond #Ukraine.

About 120,000 #HIV-positive people are facing the same crisis across #Ukraine. Since Trump took office in January, he has cut #American foreign #aid, which was key for Ukraine to obtain supplies for HIV treatment.

The work on the #abducted #children by the #Yale School of #PublicHealth #Humanitarian #Research Lab was frozen when #Trump signed an #ExecutiveOrder in late January halting almost all #ForeignAid. Since then, #MarcoRubio & an official under him, #PeteMarocco, have ended the vast majority of foreign #aid contracts, including the one to the Yale lab.

#PeteMarocco, the #State Dept ofcl who oversaw the #Trump admin’s efforts to dismantle the main govt agency distributing foreign #aid, announced in an email on Tues night that he would be replaced at the agency by 2 officials who had been involved in making the cuts.

Marocco said in the email that he would remain at State as director of #ForeignAid, but that 2 other officials would handle what remains of the #USAID.

#Finland's #defense ministry announced last week it would give a new #military #aid package to #Ukraine, worth around 200M euros ($217.48M), including artillery ammunition to help in the #war w/ #Russia.