Trump and the plan for Ukraine: business at the heart of the strategy

The plan for Ukraine aims to turn negotiations into economic opportunities

The plan for Ukraine circulating between Washington and Moscow, according to the Wall Street Journal, seems to focus less on traditional diplomacy and more on a new economic balance based on trilateral partnerships. The idea, supported by President Donald Trump and welcomed by the Kremlin, envisages the United States, Russia and Ukraine as complementary commercial players, with potentially disruptive implications for European allies.

Economic agreements instead of foreign policy

The newspaper reports that at the October meeting in Miami Beach between US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund, a $2 trillion mega-project was discussed to revive the Russian economy and redefine Ukraine’s future. The financial architecture would give US companies priority over their European competitors.

The plan for Ukraine would include access to approximately $300 billion in Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe, which would be used for joint Russian-American investments and for the post-war reconstruction of Ukrainian territories. Dmitriev also suggested the joint exploitation of Arctic mineral resources, presenting Russia to the US no longer as a threat but as a market of opportunity.

Russia’s goal: to divide the West

According to Western security officials quoted by the WSJ, Moscow aims to reshape the European economic landscape by proposing multi-billion dollar deals in the energy and rare earths sectors. This strategy could drive a wedge between Washington and major European capitals, which are concerned about the ease with which the United States is accepting the Kremlin’s line.

The key men: Witkoff and Kushner

Dmitriev, formerly of Goldman Sachs, has found fertile ground in Witkoff – an old golfing friend of Trump’s – and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law, whose Affinity Partners fund is backed by capital from the Gulf monarchies. Both share Trump’s vision: borders matter less than business, and geopolitics can be reorganised through investment and partnerships.

The plan for Ukraine, in this logic, becomes an economic “anti-conflict”: a network of interests that would make cooperation advantageous and any form of hostility costly.

A vision that comes from afar

The Wall Street Journal recalls how Trump, back in the 1980s, imagined resolving the Cold War through a commercial approach, going so far as to propose to the Soviets the construction of a Trump Tower in front of the Kremlin. This continuity re-emerges today in Witkoff’s words: “If Russia, Ukraine and the US become trading partners, everyone prospers and it is the best bulwark against future conflicts”.

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