Ukraine urges Congress to maintain sanctions against Nord Stream 2

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Ukraine has stepped up pressure on Washington over a conflicting Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany, and has called on the US Congress to maintain sanctions against the project.
On Friday, the Ukrainian parliament fully supported the resolution, urging U.S. lawmakers to overturn a decision by the Biden administration this week. download some penalties against the project.
The pipeline, which is nearing completion, would allow Russia to avoid the passage of gas through Ukraine. Kyiv has long argued that Nord Stream 2 would remove valuable revenues from gas transportation and make it more vulnerable to Russian attacks.
On Thursday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the completion of the pipeline would be a “personal loss” for Joe Biden and a “serious political victory” for Moscow.
Ukrainian officials hope to mobilize resistance to congress of long-standing parties against the long-standing project strongly against Washington. Rada of Ukraine has called on Congress to “use all available tools provided by US law to stop the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline completely and irreversibly by blocking sanctions against all participants in this Russian geopolitical project, including Nord Stream 2 AG.”
The state department has suspended sanctions against Nord Stream 2 AG, which oversees the project, this week. Penalties were maintained against the entities that included the vessels that were laying the pipeline.
The Biden administration defended it as a movement The post-Trump era was an attempt to restart relations with Germany, Europe’s top ally, considers piping to be key to its energy security.
The resolution, passed by Ukrainian lawmakers, came a few hours after Republican senators introduced legislation to re-impose sanctions on companies involved in building the pipeline.
Republican Senator Kevin Cramer he said the administration “was pursuing a wrong German strategy [Vladimir] Putin’s control of European allies. “
Ukrainian officials say that if Russia avoided Ukraine, it would prevent Russia from intimidating Kyiv. This year Russia has deployed more than 100,000 troops Eastern Ukrainian border and Crimea, Which annexed the peninsula in 2014. Ukrainian officials say Moscow has not reversed construction and may still be planning military attacks on its territory.
Colonel Kyrylo Budanov, the head of the Ukrainian Defense Intelligence, an elite unit of the Russian military equivalent to the Russian GRU, told the Financial Times in a strange interview:
“The current Ukrainian gas pipeline does not fulfill its transport function, but acts as a protection for Ukraine by the Russian Federation. At the same time, for Russia, Nord Stream 2 is just a tool to manipulate and achieve dominance in Europe. “
Budanov said 80 percent of Russian troops deployed on the Ukrainian border in March and April are still in place. When the Kremlin plans to conduct a large-scale military exercise in August, when the pipeline is expected to be completed, Russia will “be in the greatest readiness to start fighting enemies against Ukraine” by the end of that month.
Yuriy Vitrenko, the general manager of the Ukrainian state gas company Naftogaz, on Thursday asked them to stop the project in Berlin, Washington and Brussels.
“As thousands of Russian troops are still stationed on our borders, a single non-military action would do no more to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks than to stop Nord Stream 2,” he said openly. letter.
Stabilization in the face of the pipeline poses a difficult geopolitical act of balance for Kyiv, seeks greater US military support, and wants the Biden administration to be more active with Germany and France in false peace talks with Russia.
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