MOSCOW, December 4. /TASS/. Russia may continue gas deliveries to Europe through Ukraine after the launch of Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, the Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday when asked whether Moscow might guarantee such transit supplies.
"The transit (of Russian gas through Ukraine) may be maintained (after the launch of Nord Stream 2)," he said.
Peskov added that President Vladimir Putin had repeatedly said about that earlier as well. "He said that the issue is not about suspension of transit supplies through Ukraine after Nord Stream 2 is commissioned," the Kremlin spokesman said, adding that "transit supplies might be maintained further on, though everything depends on the Ukrainian side."
The Nord Stream 2 pipeline is expected to come into service at the end of 2019. The pipeline is set to run from the Russian coast along the Baltic Sea bed to the German shore. Each of the pipeline’s two stretches will have a capacity of 27.5 bln cubic meters. The total cost of the project has been estimated at 9.5 bln euro.