Moscow and Kiev envoys met Tuesday in Berlin for EU-backed talks on future Russian gas shipments through Ukraine, which fears being left out in the cold by a major new pipeline.
Ukraine is anxious that the planned Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea pipeline from Russia to Germany that will bypass it geographically will also leave it politically isolated and deprive it of crucial transit fees.
US President Donald Trump has weighed in on the dispute, charging the pipeline would increasingly make Germany a “captive of Russia” while vowing the United States will compete in Europe with tanker loads of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Russia’s state-controlled gas giant Gazprom has already dramatically cut the volume of gas transiting via Ukraine, where an armed conflict has simmered against pro-Moscow rebels since Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
Source: AFP
