US pitched resuming Russian gas transit through Ukraine, report says
The reported proposal would reverse a halted supply route, but the Kremlin says a restart is not currently possible and EU rules are phasing out Russian gas imports.
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US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner raised the proposal during visits to Moscow and Kyiv in September, The Wall Street Journal reported, according to Nieuws.nl and Ukrainian outlet Hromadske. The newspaper cited unnamed American, European and Ukrainian officials.
The proposal envisaged an American intermediary selling the Russian gas to circumvent European restrictions, Hromadske reported. US officials believed renewed sales could give Russian President Vladimir Putin a financial incentive to agree to an energy ceasefire, according to the outlet’s account of the Journal’s reporting.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on 2 November that the situation on the ground made such plans impossible to implement at present, though he left open what could happen in future.
An unnamed US official told the Daily Caller News Foundation that Europeans had shown interest in the idea and that any economic deal would be part of a broader agreement to end the war. But Hromadske reported that a Norwegian official had told the Journal the proposal contradicted the EU’s fundamental principles.
The EU adopted a phased ban on Russian gas imports in January 2026. Its rules cover pipeline gas originating in Russia or exported from Russia directly or indirectly, with temporary exceptions. For certain existing long-term contracts, the ban applies from 30 September 2027, or 1 November under a specified storage condition. The proposed deal’s contract terms are not known, so it is unclear how the intermediary arrangement would work under the rules.
The idea was reportedly put on hold after Ukraine paused strikes on Russian oil refineries for nearly two weeks under pressure from Trump, Hromadske said. Ukrainian strikes resumed on 30 October. Trump had previously urged Ukraine to stop attacks on Russian diesel facilities.
Russian gas transit to the EU through Ukraine stopped on 1 January 2025, after the transit agreement expired. About 15 billion cubic metres of Russian gas had crossed Ukraine in 2024, according to the European Commission.
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