Germany is demanding new sanctions against Russia if Moscow uses the Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline as a “political weapon.” This was stated earlier by German Chancellor Angela Merkel from Kyiv at a press conference following talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, commented Der Spiegel, adding that the Crimean platform for the future peninsula exacerbates tensions.
Sanctions will be imposed on Russia “if the pipeline is used as a weapon,” Merkel said during a meeting with Zelensky in Kyiv. This was agreed by Germany and the United States during talks in Washington, the German Chancellor reminded.
“I believe that this is a dangerous weapon not only for Ukraine, but for the whole of Europe,” Zelensky said. Ukraine fears that after the commissioning of Nord Stream 2, the country will lose its role as a country through which Russian gas transits to Europe. As a result, Ukraine will lose the multibillion-dollar income on which it depends. Zelensky will travel to Washington later this month to meet with Joe Biden to make one last attempt to oppose the project. The publication reminds that the United States is also dissatisfied with the almost completed pipeline.
Merkel said that Germany would support Ukraine in the future use of its gas pipeline network. The Chancellor suggested that it could be used for hydrogen transit. Zelensky, in turn, said that such a transition would take a long time.
Germany has repeatedly stated that it will try to influence Russia to continue gas transit through Ukraine. However, last Friday during a meeting with Merkel in Moscow, President Vladimir Putin made it clear that everything will depend on market demand.
For a long time, Ukraine was the most important transit country through which gas supplies from Russia to Europe passed. But over the years, its importance has gradually diminished – due to the commissioning of Nord Stream 1 about ten years ago, and then other gas pipelines in Belarus and the Black Sea. If in 1998 141 billion cubic meters of gas were transported through Ukraine, in 2020 – only 56 billion.
Russia, for its part, has criticized Germany’s participation in a conference on the future of Crimea. On Monday, the so-called “Crimean Platform”, which was attended by dozens of heads of state and government, as well as foreign ministers, according to “Focus”.
“The fact that Germany has supported a provocative event in Kyiv, which we consider a direct attack on Russia’s territorial integrity, deeply depresses us,” Russian Ambassador to Germany Sergei Nechayev said in an interview with Die Welt am Sonntag. “This is another factor that aggravates our bilateral relations.”