My suspicion is Trump is putting pressure on Zelensky (a) because he hates him personally and (b) because he wants an even bigger mineral rights deal. The thinking being, let Zelensky stew in it without U.S. help and suffer some humiliating defeats and let him come crawling back to the table so that he can sell of the majority of his country to the Americans, far more than the Russians will ever get.
It's 2 assholes friendly with each other sharing the spoils of war: Putin gives Trump the opportunity to brag about bringing $500B to the US/maybe it'll be today's Halliburton that'll get the mining rights, for a donation to the new Trump Mansion, and Putin gets everything else.
It's because Russia is on the verge of economic collapse and Putin forces Trump to cancel sanctions critical to them.
At this point, Russia got maximum from this war. These rare minerals deal is just to distract and it's nothing compared to oil, manganese and soil Russia will capture.
Also, I'm struggling to find any reason for Zelensky to sign the deal – no protection, zero chance to get land back. Just thrown under the bus. EU is better option.
