Donald Trump is reportedly eager to engage in business deals with Vladimir Putin as a way to end the war in Ukraine – hoping to bring billions of dollars from the Russian economy into America.
A report in The Wall Street Journal details how Trump’s team – including his son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff – have been negotiating with Russia on how to ‘bring their $2 trillion economy in from the cold’.
Witkoff reportedly hosted Kirill Dmitriev – Putin’s ‘handpicked’ negotiator – and Kushner at a waterfront Miami Beach estate to draw up a plan to end the war, while also ensuring American businesses beat their European counterparts to making money once the conflict ended.
Dmitriev is said to have pushed for the $300 billion of Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe to be used for joint US-Russian investment projects, and a ‘US-led reconstruction’ of Ukraine.
There were also reportedly talks of pursuing a joint mission between Elon Musk‘s SpaceX and Russia to reach Mars, a far cry from the ‘space race’ of the 20th century.
Russia’s strategy, according to the report, is to convince the Trump administration that they are a ‘land of opportunity’ – and not a threat.
The Kremlin reportedly hopes to ‘reshape the economic map of Europe’, while also creating friction between the US and its allies on the continent and beyond, potentially giving Putin the last laugh in negotiations.
‘Russia has so many vast resources, vast expanses of land,’ Witkoff told The Wall Street Journal.
President Donald Trump’s alternative peace plan could be a massive investment deal with Russia valued at $300 billion
Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and special envoy Steve Witkoff have been heavily invovled in the negotiations
‘If we do all that, and everybody’s prospering and they’re all a part of it, and there’s upside for everybody, that’s going to naturally be a bulwark against future conflicts there. Because everybody’s thriving.’
Presidential advisors see post-war Russia as an opportunity for American investors, according to the WSJ.
‘It’s Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to say, “Look, I’m settling this thing and there’s huge economic benefits for doing that for America, right?”‘ one of them reportedly said.
The Daily Mail has contacted the White House for comment.
This comes after Trump’s 28-point peace plan to end the war in Ukraine was leaked to the media last week. It was widely panned by European countries as being too friendly to Russia.
It would allow Russia to keep occupied territory in Ukraine – Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk – while also getting Ukrainian land that its soldiers don’t occupy.
The agreement freezes the front lines of the conflict at the Ukrainian oblasts of Kherson and Zaporizhia, which would allow Russia to effectively hold onto nearby Mariupol and have a direct line into the Crimean Peninsula.
Another key point is that Ukraine will forever be barred from NATO, the military alliance that Russia has long wanted to keep a buffer between.
Sanctions on Russia would also be lifted and the country would be ”reintegrated into the global economy’.
In exchange, Ukraine would receive looser security guarantees from the US and NATO.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to stop engaging in bombing campaigns in Ukraine after he asked them to stop.
Trump was frustrated with Zelensky earlier on in his first year in office. He got called into the White House only to get a verbal dressing down by Trump
Witkoff reportedly hosted Kirill Dmitriev – Putin’s ‘handpicked’ negotiator – and Kushner at a waterfront Miami Beach estate. Miami’s waterfront is pictured (file image)
Another draft agreement says NATO would treat any attack on Ukraine as an attack on the entire ‘transatlantic community’, according to Axios.
Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out handing over land to Russia, but Zelensky has signaled to his citizens that he likely won’t be able to get everything he wants.
‘Currently, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest,’ he said in a recorded speech. ‘Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner.’
He said he would ‘work calmly’ with the US and all other partners in the peace process.
The war in Ukraine has become a multi-year conflict, beginning when Russia invaded in February 2022. Many experts say the war actually began in 2014, when Russia formally annexed Crimea, which had been part of an independent Ukraine since 1991.
As Trump campaigned for president last year, he repeatedly claimed he would end the war that had been raging for much of President Joe Biden’s term on ‘day one’.
It has proved more complicated than that, with both sides being fairly dug in and maintaining their diametrically opposed demands.
Trump was frustrated with Zelensky earlier on in his first year in office. He got called into the White House only to get a verbal dressing down by Trump.
Later, Putin declined to stop engaging in bombing campaigns after he asked them to stop.
