KIEV, December 23. /TASS/. Naftogaz of Ukraine CEO Yury Vitrenko believes that the West should impose sanctions not only on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline but also on the first Nord Stream project, he said in an interview with RBC-Ukraine, published on Thursday.

"We have just proposed this idea (to sanction Nord Stream 1 as well - TASS). <...> We said: look, we are not against sanctions on Nord Stream as part of the West’s response to a full-scale invasion (The West and Ukraine are making statements about Russia's alleged intentions to invade Ukraine - TASS), but we meant Nord Stream 1, not Nord Stream 2. As for Nord Stream 2 it should already be under sanctions," he said.

In general, Vitrenko does not consider imposing sanctions exclusively on Nord Stream 2 to be sufficient.

"Now here's a new trick: [they say] let's tie the sanctions on Nord Stream 2 to the full-scale invasion. But we explain that this is a very wrong approach, it is dishonest," he said.

According to him, Kiev believes that Russia poses a threat not only to Ukraine, but to the whole of Europe. That is why it is not sanctions against the gas pipeline, but the provision of military assistance to the Ukrainian side that would be an adequate response, Vitrenko believes.

"Even if some sanctions are considered as part of this military assistance, they should imply putting an end to cooperation between the West and Russia as such. This is the isolation of Russia. Then we should talk about Nord Stream 1, Yamal-Europe, TurkStream - it is about completely different things. In such a situation, we should talk about the fact that the West simply cuts off Russia from itself and provides military assistance to Ukraine, which will fight with Russia," the head of Naftogaz said.

Nord Stream project

The 1,224 km long Nord Stream gas pipeline runs from Vyborg to the German city of Greifswald (federal state Mecklenburg-Vorpommern). To date, Nord Stream is the longest subsea gas pipeline in the world, and is operated by Nord Stream AG. The laying of the pipeline began in April 2010, the commercial supply of gas was launched on October 8, 2012. The design capacity is 55 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Total investments in the project amounted to 7.4 billion euros.

Ukraine's accusations

Western countries and the Kiev regime have been spreading allegations lately about Russia’s potential invasion of Ukraine. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov castigated these speculations as an "empty and groundless" escalation of tension. He did not rule out the probability of provocations to justify such allegations and warned that attempts to resolve the crisis in southeastern Ukraine through military means would have serious consequences.