US Lifts Ban on Belarusian Potash

The US will remove sanctions on Belarusian potash fertilizers, the key source of foreign-currency revenue for the Russia-aligned nation before Western restrictions stifled their flow.

US President Donald Trump ordered the sanctions lifted, effective immediately, the Belarusian state-owned news agency Belta cited his special envoy, John Coale, as saying in Minsk on Saturday.

“This is a very good step by the United States for Belarus,” Belta cited Coale as saying following two days of talks in the Belarusian capital. “We are lifting them now.”

The US may ease more restrictions as its relations with Belarus normalize, potentially reaching the point where no sanctions will remain, Coale said, according to Belta.

The announcement follows Trump’s push to rebuild ties with authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Belarus is subject to Western sanctions, including from the US, for its political repression and involvement in Russia’s war against Ukraine. Lukashenko allowed Moscow’s forces to invade Ukraine from Belarusian territory in 2022.

Potash is one of Belarus’s key exports and its only abundant mineral resource, with Belaruskali, Russia’s Uralkali and the North American producers Nutrien and Mosaic the four largest global suppliers.

After the US sanctioned Belaruskali in 2021, Belarus redirected potash sales through Russia, increasing Lukashenko’s economic dependence on the Kremlin.

Washington’s move to lift sanctions may do little to weaken that link unless the European Union lifts its own ban. EU restrictions forbid the flow of Belarus-made potash through Lithuania — once the key export hub for the fertilizers — to the Baltic Sea port of Klaipeda.