U.S. proposes resuming Russian gas sales to Europe through American intermediary, but European officials firmly reject idea, WSJ reports

The United States has proposed a plan to Vladimir Putin that would let Russia sell its natural gas to Europe through an American intermediary, bypassing European sanctions, sources told The Wall Street Journal.

Donald Trump’s special envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, put forward the idea during trips to Moscow and Kyiv in September, the newspaper’s sources said. The White House wants Russia to funnel proceeds from gas sales into an escrow account in a third-country jurisdiction, preventing the Kremlin from using the money to finance the war.

American negotiators believe Russia’s return to the European natural gas market would give Putin a powerful incentive to agree to an energy truce in Ukraine. Gas supplies would also provide Kyiv with income from transit fees, and the sales could open profitable opportunities for American investors.

Trump’s negotiators tried to present the plan to European leaders as a way to lower energy prices ahead of winter, when Europe’s gas reserves fell to their lowest level for this time of year in several years, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Europe’s official position is that the EU will not resume buying Russian gas. The Trump administration expects that resistance to prove “less rigid than meets the eye.”

In private, however, European officials categorically reject the idea. One senior official from a Scandinavian country said resuming purchases of Russian gas would contradict everything Europeans stand for. Another senior official from a major European country compared the plan to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s sacrifice of Czechoslovakia in his dealings with Hitler.

EU countries agreed in early 2026 to fully phase out Russian liquefied natural gas by January 1, 2027. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russian companies would soon redirect part of their LNG supplies from Europe to “friendly” countries.

Senior Russian and American officials held talks in early October 2026 on bringing an American investor into the Nord Stream pipeline projects, Reuters reported. Russian presidential special representative Kirill Dmitriev and Jared Kushner took part in the discussions. A deal on American participation in the Nord Stream pipelines would let the United States profit from energy supplies to Europe after the war ends, Reuters noted.