KIEV (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 23rd July, 2021) Ukraine will insist on the need to impose sanctions against the operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, Yuriy Vitrenko, CEO of the state-owned energy company Naftogaz Ukraine, said on Friday.
"We have carefully read the joint statement of the US administration and the German government. We see that the challenges facing Ukraine, primarily concerning security, remain, at least for now, unanswered. So we will continue to insist that as long as Russia, Putin use gas as a geopolitical weapon, the US must apply sanctions, without exception, in particular on the Nord Stream AG and other key participants of the project," Vitrenko, who is on an official visit to the United States, told reporters.
He added that the issue will be discussed during the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United States, planned for the end of August. According to the Naftogaz CEO, there are still enough tools that can be used to prevent the completion of the Nord Stream 2 project.
"In order for this gas pipeline to work, there must be an operator and it must be certified according to the European rules. Then European companies book capacities with this operator and can receive gas through the pipeline. So, if the pipeline operator is sanctioned, and I will again stress that 100% of Nord Stream AG belongs to Gazprom, so it is quite normal to sanction it as a geopolitical weapon in the hands of Russia, then European companies will not be able to book capacities and receive gas through the pipeline," Vitrenko noted.
The Naftogaz CEO further said that Kiev's position received significant support from the US senators and congressmen and that the US officials agreed to support Ukraine in its fight against Nord Stream 2.
On Wednesday, Germany and the United States struck a deal to allow for the completion of the pipeline without US sanctions. Berlin, considered the project's main beneficiary as the direct recipient of Russian gas, has pledged to take all necessary measures, including sanctions, to prevent Russia from using Nord Stream 2 "as a weapon."
The 745-mile twin pipeline will carry gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea, bypassing onshore transit-countries of EU-bound Russian fuel, such as Ukraine. Russia has insisted that the project is entirely commercial, urging critics to stop politicizing Nord Stream 2.
