Nearly 50 Ukrainian politicians, journalists, and activists are preparing a joint letter to U.S. President Joe Biden to reconsider waiving sanctions against Nord Stream 2.
The recent U.S.-Germany statement greenlighting Russia’s gas project will “jeopardizes the U.S. assistance, previously invested in transatlantic security of Ukraine, and does not provide safety guarantees,” Ukrainska Pravda reported on Aug. 1.
Germany and the U.S. have only agreed to take potential unspecified actions against Russia if it cuts off energy supplies to Ukraine, in addition to seeking European Union sanctions.
The 1,230-kilometer gas pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea, is almost finished.
As soon as the $11 billion project is finished and becomes operational, Nord Stream 2 will allow Russia to bypass Ukraine. Combined with the earlier Nord Stream 1 pipeline launched in 2011, the transport capacity of both lines is an annual 110 billion cubic meters from Russia to Germany, depriving Ukraine of at least $1.5 billion in transit fees per year.
Nord Stream 2 will have a disastrous influence on the war in Donbas, a draft of the letter states.
“If the North Stream 2 is launched, Ukraine will lose an important instrument on restraining the escalation of Russian aggression,” according to the plea. “It will untie the Kremlin’s hands to start a full-scale offensive.”
Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, one of the letter’s signatories, believes Russian state-owned gas giant Gazprom, which owns the pipeline, could also attempt to bribe European officials after the completion.
“Especially in the light of the latest events, when Gazprom (Russian state-owned company, which owns the Nord Stream 2 pipeline) bought European officials wholesale, those who once headed the European Union,” he said during an interview for Ukranian TV channel Espreso.tv.
On July 3, former French Prime Minister Francois Fillon was hired by the Russian state oil company Zarubezhneft. Fillon, 67, is just the latest in a string of former senior European politicians to join Russian energy companies.
Austrian ex-Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl, who notoriously danced with President Vladimir Putin at her wedding in 2018, was in June named to the board of Rosneft, Russia’s biggest oil producer. Former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has been chairman of the Rosneft and the Nord Stream shareholders’ committee since 2017, spearheading the project on behalf of the Kremlin.
Previously, Bloomberg reported that several top European Union officials in Brussels, including Markus Ederer, a former EU ambassador to Moscow, advocated for a “less combative approach” to Russia.
Ederer reportedly argued that the stance on Russia is outdated and too focused on the Kremlin’s war against Ukraine, and needs to move on, recommending the European Council instruct Borrell to devise a new way forward, according to the newspaper’s source.
Meanwhile, German chancellor candidate Armin Laschet, party leader of the Christian Democratic Union, said in his latest interview with the Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita that “if Russia retakes aggressive action against Ukraine, Germany will take action at the national level and advocate sanctions in the European Union.”
