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Chancellor Angela Merkel reinforced her pledge to ensure Russian gas flows through Ukraine, an economic lifeline for the former Soviet republic threatened by the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline linking Russia to Germany.
A gas-transit accord between Russia and Ukraine must be extended “as quickly as possible,” Merkel said at a press conference in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on Sunday after meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.“The faster this can happen, the better.”
The German leader, who visited Moscow on Friday, is making what’s likely her final visit to Russia and Ukraine as chancellor.
She’s leaving behind an unfinished legacy after spending political capital to end a conflict in eastern Ukraine and dial back tensions over her support for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline linking Russia and Germany. Zelenskiy called the pipeline a “dangerous geopolitical weapon” for the Kremlin.
At a press conference on Friday with Putin that put the tensions between the two leaders on display, the Russian president ratcheted up tensions by laying out conditions for extending a Russian-Ukrainian gas-transit contract.
