Angela Merkel / Photo from UNIAN
The construction of the pipeline should be completed before the end of 2019.
Germany's Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel says she is not considering Russia's Nord Stream 2 project as critical as Kyiv sees it, and stands for preserving gas transit guarantees for Ukraine.
"As for Nord Stream 2, we are aware that Ukraine rejects this project. I'm less critical of this project and advocate that there should be guarantees for Ukraine that Ukraine retains its transit role," Merkel said at a meeting with Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Andriy Parubiy in Kyiv on November 1.
Read alsoMerkel: UN peacekeeping mission should be created to achieve peace in Donbas
Merkel also says that revenue from gas transit shipments is important to Ukraine's budget.
As reported by UNIAN, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, on April 5 urged the international community to make every effort to ban the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline.
UNIAN memo. The Nord Stream 2 project envisages the construction and operation of two gas pipeline branches with a total throughput capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from the coast of Russia through the Baltic Sea to Germany.
This new pipeline bypassing Ukraine is to be built next to the existing Nord Stream 1 pipeline. The construction of the pipeline should be completed before the end of 2019. The length of the pipeline will be 1,220 km. It should connect Russia's Ust-Luga and Germany's Greifswald.