Ukrainian diplomats and the management of the Naftogaz of Ukraine company tell Europeans that when the Nord Stream 2 pipeline starts operating and the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine stops, Russia will attack it.
The head of the board of Naftogaz of Ukraine, Andrey Kobolev, stated this on air on the ICTV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“There is a calculation, it is not positive for us. If there is Nord Stream 2, if the Russians launch Turkish Stream, then the volume of transit through the Ukrainian gas transportation system will be approximately zero. And the Russians are doing everything to avoid transiting gas through the territory of Ukraine, this has nothing to do with gas, this is a strategic goal.
They have been working systematically since 2005, removing transit from Ukraine. This is a security issue, it opens the way for full-fledged Russian aggression. And this is the argument that Ukrainian diplomats, Ukrainian politicians, and we, Naftogaz, use in international negotiations. We explain to our European partners that by going for a “commercial” project, they are actually opening the way for Russian tanks to enter the territory of our country,” Kobolev said.