Ukrainian president accuses Nord Stream-2 advocates of supporting Russia
Supporters of the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline are "associates of Russia in its hybrid war,” said President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko in an interview with Funke media group, March 31, Deutsche Welle reports.
Poroshenko ardently insists that constructing the pipeline poses a serious threat to Ukraine. On the one hand, according to the Head of State, Kyiv will annually lose two billion dollars in customs duties that were charged for the transit of Russian gas to Europe. On the other hand, the Russian gas company, Gazprom will probably reduce gas supplies to Ukraine, thereby weakening Ukraine’s economy.
Nord Stream 2 is an "instrument of political pressure" for Russia, Poroshenko stressed. The Head of State also believes that the recent Skripal incident will have consequences for a pipeline that will link Russia and Germany. Recently, former double agent Serge Skripal and his daughter were poisoned in the United Kingdom. The UK and several nations pointed to Russia as the culprit.
As earlier reported, Germany gave permission for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea.
The project will build two gas pipeline strings with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year, running from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany.
The opponents of the project are Poland, the Baltic States and Denmark. They state that Nord Stream 2 will increase the EU’s dependence on Gazprom that already supplies about one third of gas to the EU.