Paccording to the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Dmitry Kuleba, the story of the gas pipeline has not yet ended and Ukraine will continue to protect its interests. Kiev is dissatisfied with the country’s security guarantees prescribed in the agreement between the United States and Germany
Dmitry Kuleba
Ukraine will continue to defend its interests in the issue of “Nord Stream-2”, despite the agreement concluded by the United States and Germany on the gas pipeline. This was stated by the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Dmitry Kuleba during a briefing during a visit to the village of Lugansk.
“Yesterday, the game did not end, it was transferred to overtime. We have two more halves and a penalty shootout, in order to protect Ukraine as much as possible, ” the minister said.
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He noted that Kiev has a lot of questions to Washington and Berlin about the agreements reached. The deal, according to Kuleba, does not solve the problem of Ukraine’s security.
“This is, in fact, our main complaint against this statement. There are not enough clear and specific things written in the security block, ” the foreign minister said.
The Minister stressed that the story of the “Nord Stream-2” is not complete, since the project will have to undergo certification and insurance procedures. Kiev insists on consultations with Western partners about the concluded agreement and intends to raise the question of how exactly Western countries see the implementation of the agreements reached by the United States and Germany.
“We must hold these consultations in order to establish whether there are signs of violation by the Nord Stream-2 of EU law and the principle of solidarity that operates in the EU, as well as the corresponding norm of the Association Agreement,” Kuleba added.
On July 21, the German Foreign Ministry and the US State Department issued a joint statement that actually allows the completion of the Nord Stream-2 without the introduction of new sanctions and the resumption of past restrictions. Formally, the document does not oblige Washington to abandon sanctions, but before its adoption, the State Department noted the ineffectiveness of restrictions when the gas pipeline is actually completed.
The deal guarantees Ukraine the support of the United States and Germany in terms of energy diversification, as well as the creation of a special fund for $1 billion for the country’s transition to “green” energy and assistance in maintaining the transit of Russian gas for ten years. In addition, Berlin has promised to seek sanctions against Moscow if it uses the new gas pipeline as an instrument of pressure on other countries.
Against the background of the conclusion of the agreement, Kiev and Warsaw issued a joint statement condemning the agreements reached by Washington and Berlin. “Such a decision created additional political, military and energy threats to Ukraine and Central Europe as a whole,” the document stated. Ukraine and Poland claim that the launch of the Nord Stream-2 could lead to a crisis of energy security in the region. The Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, Dmitry Razumkov, appealed to the US Congress with a request to continue the policy of sanctions against the Nord Stream-2.
Before the publication of the joint statement of the United States and Germany, the Kremlin stated that they were not going to use energy resources to put pressure on other countries. After the announcement of the terms of the deal, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian leadership had carefully studied the document.
According to him, there are points in the text that Moscow welcomes, as well as conditions with which it cannot agree. Peskov described the point about preserving the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine with the words “they married me without me”, stressing that it does not mention Russia itself in any way.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said that the main condition for maintaining gas transit through Ukraine is the demand for fuel in Europe. Gazprom stressed that it is ready to transport gas through the Ukrainian territory after 2024 based on the economic feasibility and the state of the country’s gas transportation system.
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