The United States is pushing to restore Russian gas to Europe via pipelines through Ukraine as part of an energy truce before winter, Mediafax reports citing the Wall Street Journal. The Trump administration plan — presented in September by Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Moscow and Kyiv — would market the gas through a US intermediary and is meeting resistance in the EU, which has decided to end Russian imports for good.

Washington sees a return to the European market as leverage for Putin to stop strikes on Ukraine’s energy grid; Kyiv would regain transit fees. Russian revenues would go into an escrow account in a third jurisdiction so they cannot immediately fund the war — unlock rules and EU-law compatibility remain unclear.

In January 2026 the EU approved a phase-out of Russian gas, including LNG: full LNG ban from 2027, pipeline imports by November 2027 at latest. Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said in October the ban should stay permanent even after a peace deal. European officials reject renewed dependence on Moscow.

That marks a shift from Trump’s first term, when the US sanctioned Nord Stream 2. Officials now even float longer-term Nord Stream reopening, damaged in 2022; Ukrainian pipelines could restart flows faster. Transit via Ukraine stopped on 1 January 2025 when the Gazprom contract expired.

Context: the Iran war has driven up energy costs (~€100bn extra for Europe, per WSJ); EU storage is about 75% full. Russian gas’s share fell from ~45% to ~11%, with US LNG near 30%. Romania had no direct Gazprom contracts, but resumed flows via Ukraine–Slovakia–Austria could move regional prices ahead of Neptun Deep.

Image: gas compressor (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0).

Sources consulted: US wants to bring Russian gas back to Europe via Ukraine - Mediafax.