"Budanov Barely Managed To Contain His Anger"

• 27.10.2026, 11:19

Ukraine reacted strongly to the U.S. proposals.

Representatives of U.S. President Donald Trump—Steve Whitcoff and Jared Kushner—proposed resuming Russian oil and gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine as part of postwar economic cooperation. The American proposal was met with a harsh reaction from Ukraine. This is reported by the French newspaper Le Monde.

The meeting took place on October 9 at the Shell Bay Golf Club in Gallandale Beach. There, Whitcoff and Kushner discussed not only peace talks but also the prospects for large-scale economic cooperation after the war ends.

According to the publication, Whitcoff presented the idea of a regional prosperity plan for Ukraine, Europe, and Russia. One of its elements was to be the resumption of full-scale operations of the pipelines through which Russian oil and gas were transported to Europe via Ukrainian territory. According to the U.S. official, such an arrangement would generate transit revenues for Ukraine and help European consumers reduce their energy costs.

The proposal drew a sharp reaction from the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kirill Budanov. As Le Monde reports, he was outraged: in his view, this would effectively make Kyiv dependent on Moscow. The publication notes that Budanov “barely contained his anger.” “Our model is not Belarus, but Poland!” he replied to the Americans.

The meeting was interrupted. Budanov called Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who, as the publication describes, advised him not to show his emotions. Later, the talks resumed, but the conversation had already shifted to other agreements.