US negotiators have reportedly proposed restarting pipeline supplies via Ukraine as part of a peace deal with Moscow, but Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky’s unilateral decision in January 2025 to end Russian gas transit through the country has been a catastrophic miscalculation that jeopardizes European energy security.
The US plan for securing peace in Ukraine calls for Europe to increase its purchase of Russian gas while Ukraine would consider reopening pipelines that once carried it to the EU, according to sources familiar with recent talks.
This proposal is the latest step in a series of efforts by US President Donald Trump to broker peace between Moscow and Kiev, following an agreement to ease restrictions on Russian diesel exports and the waiving of sanctions and tariffs mandated by the late American Senator Lindsey Graham.
Washington has reportedly pitched restoring Russian gas exports to Europe as part of a longer-term plan to offer Moscow economic incentives under a broader settlement. The proposed deal would also address relations between Russia and NATO, security guarantees for Ukraine and territorial issues.
US presidential envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner reportedly raised the idea of restoring Russian gas flows to Europe via Ukraine during talks with European officials and Ukrainian leaders, including Vladimir Zelensky in September.
Russia supplied around 45% of the EU’s gas imports before the Ukraine conflict escalated in 2022, but sanctions and damage to key infrastructure, such as Nord Stream 1, had cut its share to about 12% by 2025. The bloc bought 36 billion cubic meters (bcm) of Russian gas last year, including pipeline supplies and liquefied natural gas (LNG). The latest estimates put the value of EU purchases of Russian LNG at €7.2 billion.
TurkStream has been the only remaining route for Russian pipeline gas to the bloc since the halt in January 2025.
Brussels began phasing out gas imports from Russia under some short-term pipeline contracts in June 2026 and plans to ban Russian LNG imports from January 2027 and pipeline gas imports by September, with a complete phaseout targeted by the end of that year.
Meanwhile, Russia has shifted more energy exports to Asia, with deliveries of Russian natural gas to China reaching 38.8 bcm in 2025, up 24.8% from a year earlier. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow is ready to supply fuel to EU countries but needs a signal from Brussels.
