Austrian company OMV does not intend to back away from the Russian gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 despite the threat of US sanctions, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen said on Wednesday, according to dpa.

“I believe that OMV does not have the slightest intention to exit the Nord Stream 2 project,” Van der Bellen told a televised press conference in the southern Russian city of Sochi.

Nord Stream 2, currently under construction, is an expansion of a pipeline that transports Russian-sourced natural gas directly to Germany under the Baltic Sea.

The United States has decried the project as undermining the energy security of the European Union.
Ukraine alleges that the pipeline, which reduces Russia’s need to transport gas across that neighbouring state, is an affront to EU efforts to pressure Russia to end the conflict in eastern Ukraine.