Lavrov Appreciated the Possibility of Gas Transit through Ukraine in the Near Future

The issue of gas transit through Ukraine can be solved if it is not politicized, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. “When it comes to gas, Ukraine refused to buy gas from us and buy it, the same gas, but in Europe it’s about 25-30% of what you can buy from us. When it comes to Nord Stream 2, this is a pure commercial project that will increase Europe’s energy security and which is not in any way intended to harm Ukraine, colleagues know this, energy ministers meet, Gazprom and Naftogaz Ukraine representatives meet either,” Lavrov said after talks with the German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas. According to him, there is “a solution that will remove the concerns that sometimes arise from those who worry about the fate of Ukraine, unless they try to politicize this problem again too.” The Nord Stream 2 project involves the construction of two pipelines with a total capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year from the Russian coast through the Baltic Sea to Germany. It is planned to be completed in 2019. Ukraine is actively opposes this project, which is afraid of losing revenue from the transit of Russian gas, as well as a number of European countries, including Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and the United States, promoting their liquefied natural gas in the EU. ria.ru