Kyiv: Nord Stream-2 is Russia’s weapon in hybrid war
At a conference in Brussels, Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman called Nord Stream-2 pipeline "a new hybrid weapon" directed against the European Union.
"I categorically deny that it is a commercial project. It is a new hybrid weapon, targeting the EU. We should simply stop it," he said.
Groysman added that the Ukrainian gas transit system "can ensure 100% the supply", so there is no need to build new capacities.
In early April, Ukraine’s Naftogaz claimed that Nord Stream-2 gas pipeline project is a "geopolitical weapon of the Kremlin against Europe."
In May, President Vladimir Putin stated that Russia does not intend to stop the transit of gas through Ukraine after the commissioning of Nord Stream-2 pipeline, if it is economically justified. He emphasized that he sees the project as an exclusively economic.
The construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is expected to begin in 2018 and be completed by the end of 2019. The 1220-km pipeline will run along the bottom of the Baltic Sea from the Russian coast to the coast of Germany. The capacity of each of the two lines is 27.5 billion cubic meters per year.
The new gas pipeline wills double the capacity of the first Nord Stream, the route of which it will basically repeat.