US Floats Russian Gas Transit Through Ukraine in Peace Talks

The Trump administration is weighing a proposal to restart Russian natural gas flows through Ukraine as part of a peace deal, according to reports published overnight. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have raised the idea with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and with European officials, the reports said. The argument from Washington is that gas transit revenue could give Moscow a reason to end the war, and give Ukraine income from pipelines crossing its territory.

European governments have pushed back hard. Germany, which before 2022 was the largest buyer of Russian gas, opposes the idea strongly, according to the reporting, warning that renewed dependence on Russian energy would threaten European security. Other European officials in the talks recoiled at a plan that would undo years of work, backed by Washington itself, to cut Russian gas out of Europe's supply.

What is actually on the table

Nothing is agreed. The reports describe a proposal inside talks, not a deal. One version would restart pipelines that used to carry Russian gas through Ukraine to Europe. Another touches the Nord Stream pipelines to Germany. US investors could also receive a share of the profits, the New York Times reported, in accounts summarized overnight by Ukrainian and US outlets.

The legal ground is rough. The Nord Stream pipelines are sanctioned by the United States and the European Union, which makes any restart illegal under current rules, Reuters noted in its October 8 report on related talks. In that report, a White House official said there had been no recent Nord Stream discussions, and that any deal would have to be negotiated with US agencies and benefit US taxpayers and companies.

The pattern behind it

This is the third energy proposal to surface in two weeks. On October 8, Reuters reported that top Russian and US officials, including Kushner and Kremlin adviser Kirill Dmitriev, had discussed bringing a US investor into Nord Stream. On October 12, Reuters reported that Witkoff and Kushner told Ukrainian officials a separate deal allowing Russian diesel exports was meant to soften Moscow and restart peace talks. President Trump defended that diesel deal in public. In the same Miami meeting, the envoys repeated a US request that Ukraine stop striking Russian refineries, Reuters reported.

Why it matters

Gas was Europe's biggest lever and its biggest wound in this war. Before 2022, Russian pipelines supplied a large share of Europe's gas. Reopening those pipes would hand Moscow billions in revenue and renewed influence, which is exactly why Berlin and other capitals resist. For Ukraine, transit fees are real money, but the price is dependence on the country attacking its power grid, including the strikes that hit Vinnytsia overnight.

What happens next

Watch for a formal European response, and for whether Kyiv says anything in public. Ukraine's position will decide whether this is a live proposal or a dead one: no gas crosses Ukraine without Ukraine. For now, the plan exists in reports and in closed rooms, and European opposition is on the record in those same reports.