President Volodymyr Zelenskyy may offer Donald Trump the opportunity to lease Ukrainian pipelines to American energy companies so they can sell to Slovakia and Hungary. Kyiv is looking to convince the U.S. to provide additional military support to help it defend its critical infrastructure from russian strikes before winter, including air defense, long-range weaponry and urgent energy assistance.
U.S. and Ukrainian officials have been discussing the possibility of the U.S. exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) to help with Ukraine’s energy needs.
In exchange, Zelenskyy could offer Trump the possibility of U.S. energy companies using Ukrainian pipeline infrastructure to export to neighboring Slovakia and Hungary.
Ukraine could receive American LNG via Poland, which already receives much of its gas from the U.S., as well as Norway and other European countries. How the leasing of Ukrainian pipelines to US companies would work in practice is as yet unclear.
“We have already prepared our part of the homework ahead of the meeting with President Trump – both the military component and the economic one,” Zelenskyy wrote on X.
Trump has urged the European Union to cut off energy purchase from Russia, and Slovakia and Hungary are two countries in the bloc that still rely heavily on those imports.
Kyiv’s reported offer could allow Trump to kill two birds with one stone, reducing European dependence on Russian energy while making America more money.
Separately, officials in Kyiv have floated the idea of U.S. companies using Ukraine’s massive underground storage facilities to store their LNG and boost U.S. energy exports to the rest of Europe.
During a visit to Europe last month, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the EU could phase out Russian gas in six to 12 months by replacing it with American LNG – as per a $750 billion deal agreed with Trump.
Ukrainian officials have also offered to share expertise in drone technology and production with their American counterparts.