Merkel informs Putin not to omit Ukraine from gas pipe path

German chancellor says Nord Stream 2 project is not available without clarity on Ukraines role

Angela Merkel has intervened in a row over a gas pipeline due to run from Russia to Germany, telling Vladimir Putin he cannot exclude Ukraine from the transit route.

The German chancellor has defined herself up for a confrontation with the Russian president over the Nord Stream 2 project amid concerns Putin is attempting to increase western Europe's dependency on Russian gas at the same period as eroding Ukraine's importance in the project.

Speaking at a meeting with the Ukrainian chairwoman, Petro Poroshenko, in Berlin on Tuesday, Merkel said:” It cannot be that Ukraine plays no significance with regards to the transit of gas .”

She said she had stimulated her opinions clear to Putin during a telephone conversation on Monday.” I constructed very clear that a Nord Stream 2 project is not possible without lucidity over the future transit role of Ukraine. So as you insure, it's not just an economic issue but there are political considerations as well .”

Germany, as well as other countries in northern Europe that consider the benefits of increased gas supplies, has so far been a strong backer of the project, which would double the present Nord Stream pipeline's annual capacity of 55bn cubic metres.

Ukraine could expect to earn around$ 3bn a year from transit fees, which Germany has stressed would offer a valuable source of income for a country whose economy has been battered by conflict with pro-Russia separatists.

Merkel admitted “there werent” avoiding Europe's dependence on Russian gas. But Ukraine had to retain its strategic implication in the transit of that gas, she stressed.

Nord Stream 2 was established to bringing additional supplies from northern Siberia via a shorter road than the existing one, which would help to keep costs down.

The Russian gas giant Gazprom is overseeing a partnership of European companies to build a 750 -mile( 1,200 km) pipeline on the bed of the Baltic Sea to bring gas from the Yamal peninsula up to the German coastal township of Greifswald, from where it would be fed into the European grid. Licensing proceedings of the participant countries are currently under way, with construction due to be completed in 2019.

The first Nord Stream pipeline, which began operating in 2011, is ruled by Gazprom along with German, French, Dutch and Austrian energy companies.

The Ost-Ausschuss, which represents the business interests of German companies in Russia that have already invested more than EUR4bn( PS3. 5bn) in the project, said confidence in the strategy would be weakened if its legal basis was changed for political reasons.

Before of his Berlin visit, Poroshenko, called Nord Stream 2 a” strictly political project, aimed to finance Russia “. Last month in a separate interview he referred to the backers of Nord Stream 2 as” Russia's accomplices in its hybrid wars “.