Zelensky: Nord Stream 2 is a matter of war, not business

The construction of the Nord Stream 2 is not a matter of business for Europe and Russia, but it is a matter of an energy war in which not only Ukraine can lose, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

He said this in an interview with the French newspaper Le Figaro, according to the website of the head of state.

Zelensky noted that the completion of the pipeline was influenced by two factors - the position of the United States and the unity of European countries.

"I believe that the U.S. sanctions policy will help Ukraine, and I am grateful to them for that. And here they have an open position. European countries have a different position. Russia is using this. This is an energy war. As in any war, one cannot fight without unity. Someone will definitely lose. If Nord Stream 2 is completed, not only Ukraine will lose," Zelensky said.

He said that this could become a precedent and he drew a parallel with the occupied territories of Ukraine, because "if people recognize and get used to it, if they live with it, then it means it can be done so." According to Zelensky, if the world had said "it cannot be done so" in the situation with Abkhazia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria, then Russia would not have occupied Crimea and part of Donbas.

"Nord Stream is another blow, an energy blow. […] The same is with gas, a food war. […] The same is a vaccine war, when there is no supply of vaccines to one country or another, and they blackmail you. This is a hybrid war. So what's the difference between which troops are fighting against you? We have to remember that this [Nord Stream 2] is not a matter of business for Europe and Russia. This is a matter of war," he said.

op