"I want to assure you that Ukraine takes all political and legal measures to protect national interests, including coordinating our efforts with other international partners to prevent the construction of this political project that threatens the national security of Ukraine and other states," Groysman said, addressing the Ukrainian parliament.
The Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is designed to deliver an estimated 55 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas a year to a hub in Germany across the Baltic Sea, bypassing Ukraine. Its launch is planned for 2018. In 2016, prime ministers of Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia, as well as the Lithuanian president, signed a letter addressed to European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, objecting to the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, since the project could allegedly result in geopolitical destabilization.
In December last year, Ukraine's Naftogaz head Andriy Kobolyev said implementation of the Nord Stream 2 could lead to the cancellation of gas transit through Ukraine, thus depriving it of transit revenue and cutting the value of the country's gas transportation system (GTS) to a fifth. Last year, he repeatedly called for the invitation of European companies to manage Ukraine's GTS in order to strengthen the country's position to retain its transit revenue.
