US Pushes Plan to Resume Russian Gas Sales via Ukraine

Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff raised the gas plan during September trips to Moscow and Kyiv. The Urengoi-to-Europe route through Ukraine could restart faster than Nord Stream, which US officials still treat as a later piece of any larger deal. The plan was set aside last month after Ukraine paused refinery strikes for nearly two weeks under Donald Trump pressure, then regained urgency when Kyiv resumed Friday with three attacks on three Russian refineries in three days. Trump told reporters Saturday he expects the war to end soon. Mid-November trilateral talks are planned in Abu Dhabi. Contested reactions split hard. Dan Jorgensen rejected a return to Russian gas in an October 26 interview with 444.hu after Peter Magyar suggested purchases could resume once the war ends. “I certainly would not trust Russia,” Jorgensen said, per the Journal. A senior Nordic official said the idea goes against everything Europeans stand for. A senior official from a large European country compared it to Neville Chamberlain conceding Czechoslovakia to Hitler in exchange for business deals. A US official said economic proposals ran through the talks and any agreement would be part of a comprehensive peace deal. European acceptance may hinge on whether Kyiv backs the sales inside a ceasefire that limits blackouts; what the parties accept in Abu Dhabi remains open.