Trump Eyes Post-War Business Ties With Both Ukraine and Russia

US President Donald Trump said that Washington plans to conduct commercial business with both Ukraine and Russia once the war between the two nations concludes.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, Oct. 24, Trump outlined his expectation of normalized economic engagement with both countries following a cessation of hostilities.

“I think that after this war ends, we’ll do business with Ukraine and with Russia, I would think,” Trump told reporters.

The remarks reflect Trump’s transactional approach toward foreign policy and international economic engagement, positioning post-war trade reconciliation as an element of future bilateral ties.

— Clash Report (@clashreport) October 24, 2026

Tariff threats and bilateral trade limitations

Trump’s statements arrive shortly after comments delivered at a campaign rally in Florida on Friday, Oct. 23, in which the US president suggested that imposing 200 percent import tariffs on Ukraine and Russia could theoretically pressure both parties toward a diplomatic settlement.

However, Trump conceded that direct trade measures would likely have minimal impact due to limited bilateral trade volumes.

“We ended five wars thanks to tariffs. I said, ‘If you continue to fight, we’re going to put a 200 percent tariff on you,’ and they stopped,” Trump told supporters in Florida.

“We should probably immediately do it with Ukraine and Russia. Never thought of it. But we don’t buy enough to do it to them, so it doesn’t work.”

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Disputed economic leverage

Trump’s focus on future commercial engagement with Moscow and Kyiv unfolds amid continuing friction regarding Washington’s economic tools to influence the conflict.

President Volodymyr Zelensky previously stated that the US president possesses statutory leverage to compel Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate, emphasizing that bipartisan sanctions approved by the US Congress remain unenacted at the White House.

“Trump could very easily bring Putin to the negotiating table, because he has the means to do so. The way he speaks about me – President Trump should speak about Putin in the same way,” Zelensky said.

“Sanctions are sitting on his desk. He didn’t vote for them – Congress voted for strong sanctions. He has the power to act.”

Ukraine’s head of state also rejected assertions by the Trump administration linking retail fuel price increases in the United States to Ukrainian long-range drone interdiction strikes on Russian oil refineries.

While Trump justified a bilateral commercial arrangement to facilitate Russian diesel sales on global markets to lower consumer costs, Zelensky stated that domestic US diesel benchmarks operate independently of Russian export volumes.

Sanctions waivers

The debate over commercial relations arrives after Trump’s recent decision to suspend statutory sanctions and trade duties codified under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act of 2026.

On Oct. 16, Trump signed an executive order invoking Section 115 of the Graham Act to waive mandatory 500 percent tariffs on Russian imports and 100 percent secondary duties targeting global buyers of Russian hydrocarbons, just 48 hours before the measures were scheduled to take statutory effect.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the suspension as a 60-day pause to assess the broader economic fallout of tariffs on both the US and international economies, citing third-party dependencies such as India’s reliance on Russian crude.