Minister of Energy of Ukraine German Galushchenko took part online in the 8th annual Central and Eastern European Energy Security Conference, organised by the Atlantic Council.
In his speech, the Minister of Energy stressed that Ukraine was fighting not only for its independence and freedom: “We are fighting for the freedom and values of European countries and European democracy.”
German Galushchenko noted that russia’s ongoing war against the civilised world began when European countries made the aggressor feel that they were ready to seek compromises with it.
“pootin clearly stated his intentions in 2008 when he attacked Georgia. It was his first test of the limits of international law. And how did the collective West react to this violation? The West allowed and welcomed the construction of the Nord Stream gas pipeline. As a result, russia gained even more leverage in continental energy policy. And the profits from fossil fuel exports have made it possible to finance the russian military machine that is now killing Ukrainians,” the minister said.
russia also tested the West with the annexation of Crimea and the occupation of Donbas in 2014. But the aggressor wasn’t rebuffed there either, instead continuing to build gas pipelines and consolidate its monopoly on the European market.
russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine allowed the democratic world to show resilience and consolidate to confront the aggressor.
“And now we can say that lessons have finally been learnt from previous events. Today, Europe is already seeing what it means to trade with russia, to import russian energy – it means to allow the aggressor to influence other states, to manipulate entire countries, governments and people,” the minister said.
German Galushchenko stressed that European solidarity allowed to adopt a number of decisions and sanctions that restricted imports of russian coal, gas and oil and, as a result, levelled the monopoly position of russia in the European energy markets.
Today, russia wants to destroy this solidarity by dividing Europeans in order to regain its former influence. Therefore, the civilised world must focus its efforts on preventing this revenge.
“We must strengthen sanctions and not allow russia to circumvent them. We have to be sure that this solidarity will always last and will not allow the russians to divide us. The civilised world must take a tough stance: russia should never return to the energy markets again,” the minister stressed.
He also called on Western partners to support the imposition of sanctions on the russian nuclear industry in order to oust the aggressor, which violates the basic principles of nuclear and radiation safety, from the global markets. (Government portal/Business World Magazine)