Trump and his national security team continue to engage with Russian and Ukrainian officials towards a bilateral meeting to stop the killing and end the war, a White House official said in response to questions about the deals. It is not in the national interest to further negotiate these issues publicly, the official said.

Senior U.S. and Russian officials discussed potential energy deals, including ExxonMobil's return to Sakhalin-1 and Russian purchases of U.S. LNG equipment, on the sidelines of the Ukraine peace talks in early August,

The deals were reportedly offered as incentives to push the Kremlin toward a peace agreement and to provide Washington with justification for easing certain sanctions on Russia.