And possibly partially to Poland because it has very similar concerns but to a lesser degree than Ukraine.
It's not about intimidation.
Nord Stream 2 intention was to make it way more profitable than other routes so Putin can freely mess with countries those other routes go through.
By firmly taxing whatever comes out of NS2 you nullify it's attractiveness for consumers.
And giving Ukraine this much money would strengthen it economically so they can adavance faster towards western standards of living and western culture, further from Russia influence.
Losing two provinces that are basically huge coal mine populated with people speaking other language is not that painful if you can progress towards western knowledge based economies fast.
Also, there is no such thing as "irrevocably". Ukraine had just such irrevocable security guarantees granted when they agreed to let go of their nuclear inheritance.
There is no way to stop a determined despot via diplomacy or economical pressures. Putin is trying to replicate the first few years of Hitler's intimidation blitz and the world would do well to not appease him in any way.
That's true but it's true of any country to one degree of another. European union has a lot of mechanism for preventing misapplication of funds it awards to countries.
> Putin is trying to replicate the first few years of Hitler's intimidation blitz and the world would do well to not appease him in any way.
That's pure BS straight from the mouths of propagandist of USA military industrial complex that Putin is godsent enemy that justifies their existence with zero risk.
Putin just wanted to grab for himself a new coal mine which two republics of eastern Ukraine really are.
He just repeats scenario from Georgia (the one near Russia) .
There's nothing wrong making this enterprise to be on par with other routes.
German corporations that collaborated gambled on getting unfair business advantage through geopolitics. They should loose. It doesn't matter they had political support of Germany initially. Political reality changed to the point German support of Russia can no longer be swept under a rug.
And with the despicable traitor not only to Germany but to Europe and arguably civilisation itself, ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, fronting the whole enterprise.