US Resolution on Cancellation of Nord Stream 2 Advances in Congress - Senator

"Pleased to have the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pass our bipartisan resolution to push back against Russian aggression in the Black Sea", Johnson said in a Twitter post.

The bill calls for an enhanced NATO presence in the Black Sea and urges the president, State Department and Defence Department to step up security assistance to Ukraine.

It also "applauds and concurs with the European Parliament’s December 12, 2018, resolution condemning Russian aggression in the Kerch Strait and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, calling for the pipeline’s cancellation due to its threat to European energy security, and calling on the Russian Federation to guarantee freedom of navigation in the Kerch Strait", according to the text of the draft bill.

Now that the committee voted in favour of the resolution, the legislation will advance to the full Senate for a vote.

READ MORE: EU States Embracing China's Silk Road, Nord Stream 2, Defying US — Journo

On 25 November, Ukraine's Berdyansk and Nikopol gunboats and the Yany Kapu tugboat illegally crossed the Russian maritime border as they sailed toward the Kerch Strait, the entrance to the Sea of Azov. Russia seized the Ukrainian vessels and detained their crew members after they failed to respond to a demand to stop. After the incident, a criminal case on illegal border crossing was opened in Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that the incident was a provocation prepared in advance as a pretext to introduce martial law. Putin said the provocation could be linked to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's low approval ratings ahead of the presidential election.