Kremlin plays down idea of resuming gas transit to Europe through Ukraine

Russia is unlikely to resume natural gas deliveries to Europe through Ukrainian pipelines any time soon, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday, The Moscow Times reported.

The proposal

The Wall Street Journal had reported that the Trump administration floated the idea during talks in September as an incentive for Moscow to stop striking Ukraine’s power grid. According to US and European officials cited by the paper:

• Russian gas would be sold through a US intermediary to navigate European sanctions;
• proceeds would sit in an offshore escrow account so Moscow could not use them to finance the war;
• Ukraine would collect transit fees, and European heating costs could fall.

The Kremlin’s answer

“The situation on the ground speaks all too clearly to the fact that those kinds of plans are impossible to implement right now,” Peskov told reporters, adding that the future would depend on buyers, sellers and sellers’ capacity. He called Europe a “premium” market but said countries of the Global South are where oil and gas demand will grow.

Context

• Pipeline gas flows from Russia to Europe have largely stopped since the full-scale invasion, and the EU has committed to ending all imports of Russian oil and gas by the end of 2027.
• According to the US-based IEEFA think tank, the EU imported 6.9 billion cubic metres of Russian gas in the first quarter of 2026, 16% more than a year earlier.
• Russia now covers about 11% of Europe’s gas consumption, down from 45% before the 2022 invasion.