President Donald Trump has said he is working on a “massive” deal to buy fertiliser from Belarus, pivoting away from main supplier Canada amid an escalating trade dispute, and moving instead toward an ally of Russia.

“The United States is working on a massive deal with respect to the purchase of Potash from Belarus,” Trump said on his Truth Social network. “The pricing would be for substantially less than we are currently paying to Canada, very good news for our farmers and ranchers.”

In recent weeks Trump has stepped up his trade war with Canada, a long-term US ally and the country’s biggest supplier of potash.

The announcement on Monday shows Washington’s willingness to pursue dialogue with Minsk despite its repression of dissidents and support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The US imports most of its potash – a chemical salt used to manufacture fertiliser – and prices soared after the Ukraine war began in 2022.

In 2024, 79% came from Canada, 11% from Russia and 4% from Belarus, according to the US Geological Survey.

Washington has quietly moved to thaw relations with Belarus under Trump’s second administration. Last week, Belarus freed 25 political prisoners as the US lifted sanctions on two of the country’s companies.

But hundreds remain in prison after President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, suppressed mass protests over his reelection in 2020, which was followed by a wave of sanctions.

Western countries again squeezed Belarus with sanctions in 2022 after Minsk allowed Moscow to invade Ukraine through its territory.

Belarus’s exiled opposition leader, Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, on Monday warned that any deal with Lukashenko was “very risky”.

“Our position is that it is not time to trade with the regime while all the income from potash goes to repression, goes to support of the Russian war machine,” Tsikhanouskaya told Agence France-Presse.

She stressed, however, her belief that Americans “know who Lukashenko is”.