The lawmakers, leaders, civil society activists, and experts express their disappointment in a joint statement that hopes that had been raised “have been dashed by your administration’s decision to oppose sanctions against and so to greenlight Nord Stream 2, allowing the Kremlin to bring it to completion.” They appeal to him as a consistent “friend of Ukraine’s young democracy and because of your longtime record of commitment to Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty” to “change course and send a clear message of resolve to President Putin that America stands with Ukraine and the entire global community of democracies.”