President Donald Trump’s leaked plot has been instantly rebuffed by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.
The Kremlin said on Monday that it had no intention of resuming gas deliveries to Europe via Ukraine, after a desperate play by Washington designed to help actualize Trump’s energy ceasefire.
The Wall Street Journal reported in September that doing so would allow Ukraine to collect transit fees for the fuel passing through its territory. The scheme would also serve as an incentive to stop Putin from attacking Kyiv’s energy infrastructure.
“Frankly, the situation on the ground speaks all too clearly to the fact that those kinds of plans are impossible to implement right now,” Putin’s spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told gathered reporters. “But as for what the future holds, we’ll see,” he added, according to independent Russian outlet the Moscow Times.
The plan would have the U.S. act as an intermediary to prevent European sanctions from affecting the trade, while measures would also stop Russia from using the money earned in the deal to finance the war with Ukraine, which it started in 2022.
Now it threatens to flatline.
Peskov did, however, leave the door ajar, albeit only very slightly, saying that future shipments would “depend on the willingness of buyers, the willingness of sellers and the capacity of sellers.”’
The Journal reported that Trump’s envoys, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, had broached the idea in Moscow and Kyiv. The newspaper cited U.S., European and Ukrainian officials in its reporting.
Relations between Russia and Europe have tanked since the war began, with the European Union imposing a raft of heavy sanctions on Moscow and those associated with it.
Gas that the EU once relied on heavily has largely stopped flowing from the East, and Brussels has since introduced a plan to stop using it entirely by next year.
Peskov also pointed to “centers of economic growth” in the Global South, suggesting Russia isn’t reliant on Europe to buy its fuel—despite acknowledging it is a “premium market.”
It comes after Trump has been routinely humiliated by Putin as part of his doomed energy ceasefire scheme.
Trump proposed a plan to stop both sides from hitting one another’s energy infrastructure, in a bid to both cool the fighting and lower gas prices ahead of the midterms.
Affordability is at the top of the list for voters ahead of Tuesday’s election, and gas is one of the two main areas alongside groceries where Americans are feeling the pinch.
Kyiv initially said it hadn’t heard of the scheme, but said it would honor it if Russia did. Moscow ignored it entirely, launching several strikes that struck energy infrastructure and killed dozens.
Throughout his second term, Trump has appeared to court Putin, taking several decisions that have reoriented his position toward Moscow and away from Ukraine and its president, Volodymyr Zelensky.
