Russia – Ukraine Conflict and the Travesty of Sanctions: A Study of Nordstream 2 Gas Pipeline

The Russian-Ukraine crisis: an international conflict which began on February 24, 2022, triggered Europe's largest refugee crises since World War II, with more than 4.5 million Ukraine leaving the country. The war did not survive the condemnation of foremost international organizations such as the United Nations, European Union, etc. and major states like United States, German, Albania, France etc. Many severe sanctions meted against Russian so as to deter its military onslaught and discourage such aggression, yet the Russian Leader- Putin boycotted and denounced all efforts, while furthering his foreign policy ambition of recognizing the two breakaway regions in Ukraine, invaded Ukraine and unleashed severe military fire against Ukraine. It is upon this reason, this paper extrapolates another dimension of sanctions meted against Russia - the German halting the progress and conclusion of Nordstream II Gas project by freezing it's certification in a bid to deter Russian aggression against Ukraine. Did the German's action of freezing the Nordstream 2 certifications that made the Gas pipeline impossible to operate, deter Russia from going to war with Ukraine? Did the many sactions from United Nations, European Union, and other states deter Russia from continuing its invasion of Ukraine? How did Russia respond to all such sanctions? To answer these pertinent questions above ,the paper adopted the methodological orientation of content analysis as data was obtained solely from secondary sources: textbooks, journal publications, internet materials, magazines, etc. The realist and idealism theory were explored to buttress the work. The work discovered that, the Russian-Ukraine crisis was a litmus test to World foremost body- United Nations Security Council to curb the excesses of Russian aggression through sanction , while all sanctions against Russia was not enough to deter its aggressive military onslaught against Ukraine. Hence the need to reinvigorate and strengthen the deterrence method of sanctions capable of liquidating the muscle and power of any such aggressive state.