“The message we’re sending today, that I repeated to Dmytro, is that our commitment to Ukraine sovereignty — to its independence, to its territorial integrity, is ironclad,” he continued. “And the international community will see through any Russian effort to resort to its previous tactics.”
But Andrew S. Weiss, a Russia and Ukraine expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, warned that Mr. Putin had considerable leverage.
“Putin is a master at jerking our chain and throwing us off-balance,” said Mr. Weiss, a veteran of several government national security posts. “He also likes reminding us that he has escalation dominance in the Ukraine conflict, and that he cares about this issue much more than Western leaders do. That makes things very dicey.”
Mr. Kuleba said he appreciated U.S. support for his country, but he also renewed Ukraine’s complaints about the newly completed Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany. Ukrainian officials say Nord Stream 2 could cost their country $2 billion in annual transit revenue generated by an alternative pipeline that runs through its territory and makes it more susceptible to energy extortion by Russia.
The Biden administration publicly opposed Nord Stream 2 but dismayed Ukrainian officials by waiving key congressional sanctions on it this year after concluding that the pipeline could not be stopped without a counterproductive fight with Germany, if at all.
“What we see is that Russia is already using gas as a weapon,” said Mr. Kuleba, echoing reports of Russian manipulation of energy supplies at a time when Europe is short on natural gas.
“When we speak about Nord Stream 2, I would like to emphasize Nord Stream 2 is not only a Ukrainian problem,” Mr. Kuleba said. “It’s a European problem.”