"It is in the EU's interest to stop the geopolitical project of Nord Stream 2. We welcome the U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on those who have anything to do with the Nord Stream 2 construction,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Chairman of the Kyiv Security Forum, Prime Minister of Ukraine in 2014-16 stated during the KSF discussion on June 19.
"Russia has two goals. Its target is the European gas market. Russia's idea is to capture and fully control the EU market, and to create a bottleneck by constructing Nord Stream 2. Russia also wants to bypass Ukraine and actually destroy the Ukrainian gas transportation system, as well as Polish and Slovak,” he emphasized.
Besides that, Russia's idea is to undermine the US - EU relations: "Russia's goal has nothing to do with business - it's a matter of geopolitics”, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said.
The Chairman of the KSF also stressed that Ukraine commends the US decision to impose sanctions on Nord Stream 2: “Thanks to this decision, we were able to sign a contract for gas transit. It is not the best one, but we managed to sign this agreement with Russia.”
Arseniy Yatsenyuk also thanked the representatives of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus who in their letter to the Secretary of State urged the U.S. government to urgently apply sanctions on Russian entities should they engage in constructing of the infamous Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
"In the current circumstances, it is important for Europe to realize that it is in the EU's interest to stop this geopolitical project. We rely on the U.S. efforts to impose sanctions on those who have anything to do with the construction of this anti-European, anti-Ukrainian and anti-American project, which undermines energy independence. Which is Nord Stream-2,” Arseniy Yatsenyuk emphasized.
Kyiv Security Forum is Ukraine’s foremost platform for high-level international discussion about peace and security. Kyiv Security Forum was founded by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk Open Ukraine Foundation in 2007.