This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. The warning came after a summit in Brussels on Thursday, where the bloc leaders met as they tried to discourage Mr Putin from launching an invasion of Ukraine, as reports of nearly 175,000 troops were positioned at the Ukraine-Russia border. One way to drive the Russian President away from an attack could be the banning of Nord Stream 2, the currently suspended gas pipeline that will carry gas from Russia into Germany, passing Ukraine and Poland.
It is expected that this would be accompanied by heavy economic sanctions given the language used by key figures in the bloc. Latvia's Prime Minister Arturs Kri j nis Kari suggested that the EU should slap Moscow with very painful economic sanctions and put the future of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline on the table. He said it would be important that if there is heightened military activity this project would be turned off, that it would be important that we could also decide that Nord Stream 2 is on the table. After the summit, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said: Let there be no doubt that if Russia moves against Ukraine, the EU will be able to take sanctions that could extract a huge cost. The future of Russia's new pipeline is likely to worry Mr Putin, who had already been pushing for its certification to speed up, and deliberately withheld gas supplies into Europe to do so. The move sent gas prices soaring and made Mr Putin a real concern about European energy. Mr Kari said this has been a form of blackmail against the European Union, falsely stating that if we want to have more gas, we must open up to Nord Stream 2, but now with the pipeline suspended by German regulators, new Chancellor Olaf Sholz has been urged to abandon the project altogether if Russia launches an attack on Ukraine. The inviolability of borders is one of the very important foundations of peace in Europe, and we will all do everything together to make sure that this inviolability remains intact, he told reporters in Brussels. After pressure was piled on by EU leaders, Germany s energy regulator said it wouldn't make a decision on certifying Nord Stream 2 just hours later. READ MORE: Covid horror as anOTHER new variant discovered in France