Berlin: Ukraine must remain a transit country for gas to Europe | News from Germany about Germany | >

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Ukraine should remain a transit country for Russian gas to Europe, despite the ongoing construction of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. This was announced on Monday, July 12, by the spokesman for the German government, Steffen Seibert, ahead of a meeting in Berlin between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

At the same time, Seibert recalled the gas pumping contract, which was concluded between Russia and Ukraine in 2019, is valid until 2024 and provides for the possibility of extension for another 10 years.

The German government spokesman once again called Nord Stream 2 a purely economic project, although he added that Berlin is continuing negotiations with Washington on this gas pipeline.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already met in Berlin with President of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier. During the meeting of the Ukrainian leader with Angela Merkel, a number of issues of bilateral relations, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline and the situation in eastern Ukraine are expected to be discussed.

Nord Stream 2 to be completed by August

On July 11, the Handelsblatt newspaper, citing Matthias Warnig, the general director of the operator of the Nord Stream 2 AG project, announced that the laying on the bottom of the Baltic Sea should be completed in a few weeks. “98 percent of the pipeline has already been completed. 2 percent that has not been built belongs to one of the two branches. The other line is fully completed,” Warnig explained. According to him, the company’s goal is to commission the gas pipeline this year.

The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline was supposed to go into operation at the beginning of 2020. But its construction was stopped several times for both political and environmental reasons. Ukraine and a number of Eastern European countries are actively opposing the gas pipeline.

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