Ukraine: Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline is Russia's weapon
The Deputy Speaker of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada, Oksana Syroyid, stated that the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline is a “Russian weapon,” 112 Ukraine TV reports.
“Russia will keep winning and we do not know when they will stop,” Syroyid said. “The Nord Stream-2 is a weapon, which Russia has already delivered to Berlin, and the only question is: when will they use it?”
On June 13, George Tuka, the Deputy Minister for the temporarily-occupied territories, called the Nord Stream-2 a “threat to European civilization.”
At the end of May, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman called the gas pipeline a “hybrid weapon” against the European Union.
The Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline will be laid across the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the coast of Russia to Germany. Its capacity is estimated at around 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. It will run be laid in the exclusive economic zones of Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Germany, Finland and Sweden have alreaid given consent to the conduction of the pipeline on their territory.
After construction of the pipeline is completed, Russia will be able to supply a significant portion of natural gas to Europe, bypassing Ukraine, which is currently a major transit country of Russia’s gas.
Despite Germany’s consent to the gas pipeline, German Chancellor Angela Merkel insists that operating the Nord Stream-2 is impossible without continuing the transit of gas through other countries, including Ukraine. At the meeting with Merkel in May, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow will continue the transit of gas through Ukrainian territory if it is economically justified.