US fears Russian energy manipulation could fracture European resolve on Ukraine

When President Joe Biden convened nearly a dozen Western leaders by private video conference on Thursday to discuss the war in Ukraine, he was intent upon delivering a key message, sources say: to stay unified in punishing Russia, even as the Kremlin tries to weaponize energy and break Western resolve.

It was at least the second such entreaty to Europe last week to maintain the sanctions pressure on Russia, in the face of skyrocketing energy costs caused by Russia’s invasion and the prospect of a tough winter after the Kremlin shut off gas flows to Europe through a key pipeline. In an op-ed published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged citizens to stay the course and continue to support Ukraine, even in the face of “a difficult six months.”

The intensifying messaging campaign underscores a growing wariness in Washington and Brussels that Moscow’s weaponization of oil and gas – its two biggest exports and increasingly the backbone of its economy – could successfully force fissures in what up until now has been a largely united European front opposing Russia’s war in Ukraine. $Camber Energy (CEI.US)$ $Imperial Petroleum (IMPP.US)$ $Occidental Petroleum (OXY.US)$ $Indonesia Energy (INDO.US)$ $Chevron (CVX.US)$ $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$