President Biden said Monday that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to deliver Russian natural gas to Germany won’t go forward if Russia invades Ukraine, stepping up pressure to isolate Moscow as French President Emmanuel Macron kicked off a round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at thawing tensions between the Kremlin and the West.
Speaking at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Mr. Biden said “there will be no longer a Nord Stream 2” should Moscow invade Ukraine. Mr. Putin has massed more than 100,000 troops along the border with Ukraine in what Western officials fear is a prelude to an invasion that would be Europe’s biggest land war since World War II. His demand: that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization scale back its military presence in Eastern Europe to 1997, before most of the eastern countries joined the alliance.