The US government has threatened new sanctions against companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, urging them to pull out of the German-Russian project.

The US State Department “reiterates its warning that any entity involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline risks US sanctions and should immediately abandon work on the pipeline”, said Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Thursday.

He added that the Department is tracking efforts to complete the pipeline and “evaluating information regarding entities that appear to be involved” in the project. Nord Stream 2 is a “bad deal for Germany, for Ukraine, and for our Central and Eastern European allies and partners”, Blinken said. “As multiple US administrations have made clear, this pipeline is a Russian geopolitical project intended to divide Europe.”