According to the daily, American envoys Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were to raise this issue in talks with representatives of Ukraine and European countries. One of the variants considered would be to resume the transmission of Russian gas through gas pipelines running through Ukraine.
Gas as an incentive for Moscow?
According to the New York Times, Washington is to present the possibility of returning some Russian gas to the European market as an economic incentive for the Kremlin to end the war. In the opinion of the American administration, such a model could generate income for both Russia and Ukraine - in the form of transit fees.
The White House said in a statement that it was working with Ukraine and European partners on a "comprehensive peace proposal" that would include economic incentives for both sides in the conflict. The goal is not only to stop the fighting, but also to create conditions for lasting peace and economic reconstruction of the region.
However, no details of the potential mechanism or its political and security conditions were presented.
Europe limits imports from Russia
The proposal is contrary to the current policy of the European Union. After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, EU countries began to rapidly move away from energy resources from Russia.
According to data cited by "NYT", Russia's share in gas imports to the European Union decreased from 45 percent. in 2021 to 13 percent last year. Ukraine ended the transit of Russian gas on January 1, 2025, thus giving up approximately $1 billion in annual fee revenues.
The European Union previously declared that it wanted to completely end the import of Russian gas by 2027.
Germany is said to be particularly skeptical about the idea. For years, Berlin was the largest recipient of Russian gas in Europe, but after the start of the war, it considered independence from Moscow as one of the pillars of energy security.
Former German Economy Minister Robert Habeck warned that Europe, and especially Germany, should not become dependent on Russian gas again. He pointed to the risk of using energy supplies as a tool of political pressure.
At the same time, the issue of energy prices remains important in the German internal debate. The right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) calls for resuming imports of raw materials from Russia, arguing that this would help the economy and reduce inflation.
Nord Stream 2 in the background
The talks were also said to include the issue of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which connects Russia with Germany through the Baltic Sea. The White House assured that the investment was not the subject of "recent talks" and any decisions would require close coordination with European partners.
According to Reuters information, cited by "NYT", representatives of the US and Russia were to talk about the possibility of an American investor participating in the project.
Critics of the concept emphasize that restoring Russian gas to Europe would mean financial strengthening for Moscow and could again expose EU countries to pressure from the Kremlin.
What does Trump actually want?
It is worth recalling that one of Donald Trump's basic accusations against Europe was: the European Union paid Russia huge amounts of money for energy, and with the funds thus obtained, Moscow strengthened its war machine, thus threatening countries that bought gas and oil. At the same time - Trump argued many times - EU countries asked the US to protect their security in the face of the growing Russian threat.
The President of the United States logically argued that a similar system has no rational justification, and he repeated his accusations just a few days ago when he accused EU countries of hypocrisy, stating that since the full-scale war in Ukraine, Community countries have paid Moscow $250 billion for energy (in fact, this amount is much lower).
Today, the administration in Washington is directly trying to persuade NATO allies to become fully dependent on Russian energy again. Why this sudden turn in US policy?
