The more I dig I am coming to feel that something is not together...what one sees is not what is.
There is a big noise led especially by Ted Cruz against Nordstream 2. The American shale people would like to get a chunk of the European gas market. They would have to do that by supplanting the Russians to some degree. There are several factors operating.
1) fast depletion rate of shale in the US.
2) Unhappiness of investors in the industry.
3) The price of US-supplied gas in Europe would in all likelihood be higher than that of the Russians.
To sell this European bound gas idea geopolitics is skillfully employed and Germany is shamed, and anyone asking reasonable questions is often labeled a Putin stooge.
The likely losers in all of this play are the American and European consumers.
Some Democrats are uneasy about the exporting of gas since it affects the local price but the gas lobby is powerful.
Putin's real fear re the Donbas...it might be less about protecting ethnic Russians and more about the possibility of an explosive growth of fracking in the area if the area is retaken by the Ukrainian government.
Zelensky who won as a peace candidate and the one most likely to make an agreement with the Russians was being pushed to capture the very rich shale area held by the rebels.
Throughout the length of the rebellion, it is believed that the Russians got rid of all independent pro-Russian nationalists.
https://euractiv.com/section/energy/...ry-in-ukraine/