The U.S. is backing a quick resumption of Russian natural-gas sales to Europe via pipelines running through Moscow's wartime enemy -- Ukraine -- as part of negotiations aimed at securing an energy ceasefire ahead of the coming winter, according to U.S., European and Ukrainian officials.
The idea, broached by U.S. envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff during trips to Moscow and Kyiv in September, would involve selling Russian gas via a U.S. intermediary to circumvent European sanctions -- and could create a lucrative opportunity for American investors, people who attended the discussions said.
Under current European Union legislation, all purchases of Russian natural gas must be phased out by the end of 2027. Leaders of Europe's biggest nations have said that they have no interest in restoring their dependence on energy supplies from a country they view as their top strategic threat.
The plan was put on the back burner last month after Ukraine unilaterally stopped striking Russian refineries under pressure from President Trump. Kyiv paused strikes on Russian refineries for almost two weeks as Russia continued pounding Ukraine's energy infrastructure and as Moscow began shipping diesel to the U.S. The U.S. shifted focus to the possibility of a more substantial peace agreement.
Kyiv, however, resumed its air campaign Friday, launching three attacks on three major Russian refineries in the past three days. This has brought new urgency to the pursuit of a more comprehensive energy ceasefire ahead of three-way peace negotiations that are planned between the U.S., Russia and Ukraine for mid-November in Abu Dhabi. Russia so far has rebuffed American attempts to strike such a deal.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday that an immediate resumption of Russian gas exports to Europe is impossible because of the "situation on the ground," according to Russia's state news agency TASS. He added, however, that such exports could become possible in the future if buyers and sellers agree.
In the view of U.S. negotiators, a Russian comeback to the European natural-gas market would create a powerful incentive for President Vladimir Putin to agree. Using the Soviet-era pipeline network that runs to Europe via Ukraine from the Urengoi gas fields in Siberia would also provide Kyiv with badly needed revenue from transit fees.
White House officials proposed that Russia deposit proceeds earned from these gas sales to Europe into an escrow account in a third-party jurisdiction, so that the Kremlin won't use the money to finance its war, said a senior U.S. official. They have tried to sell the idea to European leaders as a way to lower energy prices ahead of a winter when Europe's gas reserves have reached their lowest seasonal level in several years.
Such pressure represents a complete about-turn from Trump's first administration. Back then, Trump repeatedly chastised German Chancellor Angela Merkel for building the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia. He warned that Nord Stream 2 would make Germany "captive to Russia," and, in late 2019, imposed sanctions on it.
Just over two years later, Russia -- its military funded by energy-export revenues -- invaded Ukraine, betting that Europe wouldn't react because of its heavy economic dependence on Moscow.
The war, however, prompted the Europeans to view dependence on Russian natural gas a strategic vulnerability to a hostile power they no longer trust. The EU has passed legislation sharply curtailing Russian gas imports and outlawing them altogether by the end of next year. The current official European position is that the EU won't resume purchases of Russian gas even after a full peace agreement with Russia, let alone as part of a tenuous energy ceasefire that allows Putin to continue the war and provides funding for his military.
EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen, in an interview with a Hungarian newspaper in October that his office has confirmed, said the ban on Russian gas imports should be permanent.
"I certainly would not trust Russia. Even if there were peace tomorrow, which we all hope for," he said.
The Trump administration is wagering that European resistance will prove to be less rigid than meets the eye.
But in private, some senior European officials are more blunt. A senior Nordic official said the idea of resuming Russian gas purchases goes against everything the Europeans stand for, while a senior official from a large European nation compared it to former British leader Neville Chamberlain sacrificing Czechoslovakia to Hitler in exchange for business deals.
The U.S., for its part, now sees an eventual reopening of Nord Stream as a potentially important component of a larger deal, not just to end the war in Ukraine but to resolve Russia's longstanding friction with America's European allies. Merkel's mistake, a senior U.S. official said, was to pursue the pipeline without first working toward a wider security arrangement with Russia that Moscow could feel comfortable with.
A U.S. official said negotiators had discussed various economic proposals throughout negotiations. Europeans have expressed interest in a proposal that would drastically reduce gas prices across the continent, the official said, adding that any economic agreements would be part of a comprehensive peace deal.
Russia and Germany built the first Nord Stream pipeline to bypass the networks running via Ukraine in 2011. Nord Stream 1, which halted deliveries in August 2022, and Nord Stream 2, which was never put into operation, were badly damaged in underwater explosions attributed to Ukraine in September 2022. Restarting them would take considerable time, even if political and regulatory hurdles could somehow be overcome.
By contrast, the network running through Ukraine, with connections to Slovakia and onward to Austria and Germany, could be restarted almost immediately. Limited quantities of gas continued to flow through it until it was shut down in January 2025, well into the full-scale war between Russia and Ukraine.
Today, just 11% of Europe's natural gas comes from Russia, down from 45% on the eve of the war. U.S. liquefied-natural gas accounts for 30% of European consumption, while Russian gas is imported either via LNG tankers or through the TurkStream pipelines supplying Hungary and Slovakia.
The fallout from Trump's war on Iran could erode Europe's resistance, European officials acknowledge. Qatari liquefied-natural gas shipments remain bottled up inside the Persian Gulf, and a global surge in energy prices has continued even with more oil shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz. Europe has spent an additional 100 billion euros, about $112 billion, on energy as the result of the war with Iran, according to the EU.
Europe's underground natural-gas storage is about 75% full, and the continent will enter the coming winter with stocks below the nine-year average, according to the EU's energy regulators.
Germany's main opposition party, the far-right Alternative for Germany, has already made the resumption of cheap natural-gas imports from Russia a key part of its campaign ahead of national elections slated for 2028.
It would be easier for Europe to change its position if Kyiv endorsed the gas sales as part of a ceasefire that would prevent energy blackouts and a possible humanitarian catastrophe in major Ukrainian cities, potentially triggering a new exodus of refugees in coming months, diplomats said. That is especially so as Ukraine has run out of air defenses, with the U.S. restricting supplies of Patriot interceptors amid a global shortage caused by the war on Iran.
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