Maybe Zelensky Should Write a Book on the 'Art of the Deal'

Ukraine's leader held firm and kept the risk of US exploitation low

- MARC CHAMPION is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

Maybe it's Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky who should be writing books about the art of negotiation. For a while, it looked as though Zelensky had made a huge miscalculation by highlighting the opportunities available to allies in exploiting his nation's natural resources. The idea was to interest the famously transactional Donald Trump in Ukraine's defense and it seemed a clever ruse at the time. In the event, it almost blew up a military relationship critical to Ukraine's survival, but the deal as now at least partially agreed looks like a good save.

We do not yet have the deal's published text, and—according to a Ukrainian news agency that saw the documents—an important further "technical" protocol remains to be signed.

Still, if the agreement is as described by both Ukrainskaya Pravda and Yulia Svyrydenko—the economy minister who drove the final negotiation—it at least averted disaster and could serve a little of the original purpose.

The neo-colonial terms of exploitation in previously leaked US drafts that Trump clearly expected Zelensky to sign on the spot—because the American president exploded in anger when that did not happen—are no longer there.