Berlin, Feb 22 (EFE).- Germany on Tuesday suspended the certification process for the lucrative and controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in response to Russian president Vladimir Putin's recognition of two pro-Russian separatist territories in eastern Ukraine.

"Against the background of the escalating conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the German government is halting the approval process for the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline until further notice," chancellor Olaf Scholz told a Berlin press conference.

"Without this certification, Nord Stream 2 cannot go into operation."

The pipeline, which is operated by Russian energy giant Gazprom and has already been completed with the participation of German companies, will transport gas directly from Russia to the European Union via the Baltic Sea through German territory, thereby avoiding transit through Ukraine.

Scholz said Putin had "no support from the global community" for the action, which came following weeks of escalating military tensions and had forced Germany to reassess the situation.

The chancellor added that Western allied powers would announce tough sanctions against Moscow imminently, as EU foreign ministers gathered in Paris Tuesday to discuss their response.

In a fiery speech on Monday evening, Putin recognized the two self-proclaimed People's Republics of Luhansk and Donetsk and announced that he was sending in Russian "peacekeeping" forces, a move that essentially tore up the Minsk Accords signed in 2015 to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine and sparked an international backlash.

"I would like to emphasize again that Ukraine is not just a neighboring country for us. It is an inalienable part of our own history, culture and spiritual space," he said.

Putin said negotiations with Western countries on resolving the Ukraine crisis have hit a "dead end" and that the situation in the Donbas region - where since 2014 Russia-backed separatists have battled Ukrainian government forces, a conflict that has claimed around 14,000 lives - "has reached a critical, acute stage."

Russia's president also issued a stark warning to Ukraine's government.

"As for those who seized and hold power in Kiev, we demand an immediate end to their military operations" against Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin said. "Otherwise, all responsibility for the possible continuation of bloodshed will be fully on the conscience of the regime in power in Ukraine."

In a televised address in the early hours of Tuesday, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of violating its "sovereignty and territorial integrity."

"All responsibility for the consequences of these decisions rests with Russia's political leadership," he said.

The move "undermines peaceful efforts and destroys existing negotiating formats," Zelenskyy said.

"Russia is legalizing its troops, which have actually been in the occupied areas of Donbas since 2014. A country that has supported the war for eight years cannot maintain peace, as it claims."

Zelenskyy assured that Ukraine is committed to diplomacy and will not be provoked.

"We can clearly distinguish between the provocations and the offensive of the aggressor's troops (...) There is currently no reason for chaotic action. We will do everything to keep it that way," he said.

The US and EU say they fear that Russia's recognition of Donetsk and Luhansk, which have received political, financial and logistical support from the Kremlin since 2014, will serve as a pretext for Moscow to attack parts of Donbas that lie outside the separatists' control or even to carry out a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Russia is currently deploying between 150,000 and 190,000 troops, according to Kiev and Washington, on the Ukrainian border, including some 30,000 troops in Belarus, a Moscow ally.

Moscow, which wants a commitment from Nato to pull troops from former Soviet republics in Eastern Europe and assurances that Ukraine will never be admitted to the alliance (demands which have been rejected by the US and its allies), has repeatedly denied it intends to invade Ukraine. EFE

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