Donald Trump has secretly authorised sanctions relief on Russia in exchange for the release of political prisoners, according to reports from The Atlantic. The plan, devised by Trump's envoy to Eastern Europe John Coale, permits US officials to negotiate lucrative trade deals for Russian oil, diesel and rare earth minerals despite Moscow's ongoing bombing campaign against Ukrainian cities. This covert arrangement risks triggering significant diplomatic backlash from Ukrainian and European leaders, who fear revenue to the Kremlin will finance Putin's invasion, and from Republican lawmakers in Congress who may view it as contradicting the strict sanctions law Trump signed just weeks earlier.

Coale has spent over a year testing this approach in Belarus, where he secured the release of approximately 500 political prisoners from dictator Alexander Lukashenko's regime in exchange for sanctions relief. Russia is positioned to benefit from this strategy through its involvement in fertiliser deals, which would likely be shipped through Russian territory. The development underscores Trump's continuing efforts to broker a peace deal—he has held repeated calls with Putin and his envoy has met the Russian leader at least seven times since Trump's return to the White House, including hosting Putin at an Alaska summit in August 2025, though no ceasefire was achieved. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has pledged to oppose any sanctions relief before the war's conclusion, whilst Belarusian opposition leader Svetlana Tikhanovskaya has cautioned that such swaps reward regimes for taking hostages.