OREANDA-NEWS. Naftogaz’s executive director, Yuriy Vitrenko, said Germany was strangling Ukraine’s economy by supporting the construction and launch of the Nord Stream 2 project.

“With the launch of Nord Stream 2, we can expect that there will be no transit of gas through Ukraine. And Germany should understand that it thus contributes to the economic strangulation of Ukraine”, he said in an interview with Deutsche Welle.

Vitrenko claims that Germany’s actions will result in both financial losses for Ukraine and threaten the stability of gas supplies to Europe. “Transit revenues are very significant for the Ukrainian economy, and the entire Ukrainian and East European gas market was formed on the expectation that gas will go from east to west. And such a radical change - now gas should go from west to east, to eastern Ukraine, at least, is a threat to the stability of supplies in the region. And Germany, as one of the leaders of the European Union, should be aware of this", Vitrenko will add.