No commercial or moral justification for Nord Stream 2 – Kuleba

Ukraine is convinced that the Nord Stream 2 project has no commercial or moral justification, and that the letter and spirit of European legislation must be fully applied to it.

That's according to Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, who spoke with CNBC, the foreign ministry's press service reports.

Nord Stream 2 has no commercial or moral justification. This is a political project that benefits Russia, but which contradicts the basic principle of EU energy – diversification," the top diplomat said in the interview, according to MFA's report delivered in Ukrainian.

Kuleba stressed that Russia is already using gas as a weapon, and EU citizens and businesses are already able to see this by paying a much higher price for gas. He reminded that Russian President Vladimir Putin had been blackmailing European countries since the onset of the ongoing engineered energy crisis, hinting that it is Nord Stream 2 certification that will return gas prices to their previous levels.

"What is it but the use of gas as a weapon?" the minister asked.

At the same time, Kuleba stressed that his first phone call with the newly-appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Annalena Baerbock, left a reassuring impression. He also stressed that Ukraine had heard the words of the new head of German diplomacy on Nord Stream 2.

"In our first conversation, my German counterpart and I agreed that both the letter and the spirit of the EU's Third Energy Package should be applied to this project," he said.

Kuleba reiterated Ukraine's readiness to continue working with the new German government and to convey Ukraine's position, as well as the dangerous strategic consequences that the Russia appeasement policy may have.

As reported earlier, Russia's gas monopoly Gazprom announced on September 10 that the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been completed.

Nord Stream 2 is a Russian gas pipeline laid to bypass Ukraine, running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea, from Russia to Germany. Gazprom is the sole shareholder of the project.