US offers Russia frozen assets, Lukoil sale, Belarus potash for partial truce
The New York Times reported on October 10 that US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner put three incentives to Moscow in late September — access to frozen state assets, a sale of Lukoil's foreign business and freer Belarusian potash exports — in return for a limited ceasefire covering energy infrastructure or the sea. The package was pitched as an upfront inducement to accept a partial halt to the fighting before winter, and Ukrainian officials were surprised by how far the Americans had gone. Kyiv did not reject the proposals outright but demanded dollar-for-dollar releases from the frozen assets to fund Ukraine's defence and reconstruction and firm guarantees of faster military aid if Russian forces broke a truce, while Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said after an October 9 phone call between Trump and Putin that Moscow would continue hostilities until it achieved all stated goals.
Why it matters: The offer makes sanctions relief the currency of ceasefire diplomacy, tying the briefing's sanctions theme directly to the trajectory of the war.