Ukraine’s closest allies have warned against the European Union reopening Russian gas pipelines as part of a potential peace settlement, with one Baltic nation describing the prospect as “not a good solution in any way.”

It comes shortly after the Financial Times reported that EU officials were considering whether to restore gas flows from Russia to Europe as part of a settlement to end the Kremlin’s years-long Ukraine war.

The report, which was published on Jan. 30 and cited unnamed sources familiar with discussions, said the idea had been endorsed by some EU officials as one way of lowering regional energy costs.

Estonia, a NATO member which shares a 294-kilometer (183 miles) border with Russia, is among those calling on the 27-nation bloc not to reopen Russian gas pipelines.

The Eastern European country said the EU must not allow itself to become dependent on Russian energy as part of a Ukraine peace settlement, noting that restoring gas flows would be inconsistent with the bloc’s goal of phasing out Russian fossil fuel imports by 2027.

“We have seen in history that Russia has used energy as a weapon. Russia has repeatedly demonstrated this — and so, going back is not a good solution in any way,” Kadri Elias-Hindoalla, director of Estonia’s foreign affairs’ sanctions and strategic goods department, told CNBC via video call.

Europe should have learned its lesson when Russian forces invaded Georgia in 2008, Estonia’s Elias-Hindoalla said, adding that the Ukraine war has since reaffirmed the importance of finding alternative suppliers and improving the bloc’s energy independence.

“Our position is very clear: We should maximize sanctions and limit Russia’s energy imports as much as possible,” Elias-Hindoalla said.

The foreign ministries of Russia and Ukraine did not respond when contacted by CNBC for comment.

For its part, the European Commission said it is “not making any links” between the reopening of Russian gas and Ukraine peace talks. The European Commission is the EU’s executive arm.

“Whenever we have such talks, when that moment comes, it will be with Ukraine and we do not confirm any links reported in the article … about any links between the transit of gas through Ukraine and any peace talks,” EU spokesperson Paula Pinho said in a press briefing on Thursday.

The EU’s plan, Pinho said, remains to stick to the gradual phasing out of Russian gas. The bloc adopted a 15th package of sanctions against Russia late last year, seeking to further weaken Russia’s military and industrial capabilities.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy underlined this message in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this month, warning it would be “very dangerous” to exclude Kyiv from talks between the U.S. and Russia about how to end the invasion.

Speaking during a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 23 that he would like to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin “soon” to find a way to end the Ukraine war.

Former Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said the prospect of peace through dependence on Russian gas was “demonstrably one of the worst ideas in the history of the world.”

“The suggestion to reinstate this disastrous policy is nothing more than spitting on the graves of its innocent victims,” Landsbergis said in social media post on Jan. 30.

Even in the event of an end to the Ukraine war, Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nausėda has warned that his country’s geographical position could make it vulnerable to a broader conflict. The country of 2.8 million borders Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave to the west and Moscow’s ally of Belarus to the east.

Russian gas exports to Europe via Ukraine came to halt at the start of 2025, marking the end of Moscow’s decades-long dominance over the region’s energy markets.

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy said at the time that the end of Russian gas transit through his country to Europe represented “one of Moscow’s biggest defeats” and called on the U.S. to supply more gas to the region.

Russia, meanwhile, warned that EU countries would likely suffer the most from the supply shift. Moscow is still able to send gas via the TurkStream pipeline, which links Russia with Hungary, Serbia and Turkey.

Poland, a staunch Ukraine ally and another European country that shares a border with Russia’s Kaliningrad, has also urged EU countries not to reopen Russian gas flows.

“I can only hope that European leaders will learn lessons from Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and that they will push through a decision to never restore the pumping of gas through this pipeline,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the BBC last month.

His comments referred to the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline, which connects Russia and northern Germany via the Baltic Sea.

Nuclear energy is set for a “renaissance” that will be accelerated by backing from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration.

That’s according to Yuri Khodjamirian, chief information officer at Tema ETFs, who noted that the Trump administration is “very, very interested in backing this technology.’ However, he also warned investors that developing this energy source is “going to take time.”

New nuclear technology approvals take “10 years to get done,” Khodjamirian said, but added that the nuclear re-emergence will likely be accelerated under the new Trump administration.

Speaking to CNBC’s Silvia Amaro on Tuesday’s “Squawk Box Europe,” Khodjamirian said his investment fund has its eyes on firms with a history of developing nuclear technology, such as U.S.-based BWX Technologies, which builds nuclear reactors for military carriers and submarines.

Khodjamirian said Tema is being “very selective in a new technology called small scale modular reactors.”

Small scale modular reactors (SMRs) are advanced nuclear reactors with the ability to provide around one-third of the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power reactors, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

SMRs take up less physical space compared to conventional reactors and produce a large amount of low-carbon electricity.

“There’s a lot of excitement there, and equally, a lot of loss-making companies that have unproven technologies, and we’re going for companies that have projects that are approved,” Khodjamirian said.

The nuclear energy renaissance is partly driven by a wave of people that are “realizing that it’s a stable, clean source of energy,” the chief investment officer said, adding that he believes that “there is a need for extra investment” in nuclear, alongside green energy sources that are variable in their electricity production.

“Renewables are good. They can be put up to speed quickly, but they require battery storage,” he said.

Trump has moved quickly on his energy agenda since his return to the White House. The U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, a fracking executive and a Trump ally, as energy secretary.

Wright is a known nuclear energy supporter, having previously served on the board of advanced reactor company Oklo, as well as having held the position of chief executive at Liberty Energy. The energy firm has since appointed a new CEO following Wright’s confirmation as U.S. secretary of energy.

In 2023, Wright signed a letter supporting nuclear energy.

Khodjamirian is also closely monitoring artificial intelligence volatility, after the emergence of China’s Open AI model DeepSeek sparked concerns over how much money big tech companies will invest in AI.

European nations have voiced security concerns over DeepSeek.

Italy was the first country to block DeepSeek on data protection concerns. France‘s privacy watchdog has expressed concerns and South Korea’s industry ministry has temporarily restricted employee access to the Chinese startup’s AI model.

Taiwan, meanwhile, banned state departments from using the Beijing-based chatbot, wary of potential security threats from Beijing.

The international pushback shows that “no one really knows exactly how to defend digital borders,” according to Khodjamirian.

Global concern will “limit the growth of this model, because it’s coming out of China, but it’s clearly showing you that the West needs to be aware that there’s a lot of technical development,” he said.

“[But] I do think it redraws some of the lines, and it’ll be interesting to see how the U.S. in particular reacts,” he added.