Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: "Well, unfortunately, ... this is the type of step, the type of almost weaponizing energy supplies that we had predicted that Russia could take in this conflict."
She added that the US administration has been "in touch with Europe," including with leaders in Poland and Bulgaria.
"And we have been working for some time now, for months, with partners around the world to diversify natural gas supply to Europe to — in anticipation of and to also address near-term needs and replace volumes that would otherwise come from Russia," Psaki said.
She noted that US President Joe Biden last month launched a task force with the European Union "to target additional LNG volumes" for Europe, including Poland and Bulgaria.
"This will help replace, over time, Russian gas to Europe, decreasing Europe’s dependence on Russia and Putin’s ability to use energy to coerce Europe," Psaki told reporters.
During a trip to Europe last month, Biden pledged that the United States would ship more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the European Union to help reduce its reliance on Russian energy.
"We're coming together to reduce Europe's dependence on Russia's energy," Biden said at the time, as quoted by the Reuters news agency.
"We should not subsidise Putin's brutal attack on Ukraine," he told reporters while in Brussels on March 25.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said at a joint news conference with Biden in the Belgian capital that the 27-nation bloc was working to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies.
"Your commitment to provide the EU with an additional 15 bcm (billion cubic metres) of LNG this year is a big step in this direction," she said at the time.
US President Joe Biden. Photo: EPA/MICHAEL REYNOLDS
Von der Leyen said on Wednesday that Russian energy firm Gazprom's decision to stop delivering gas to European customers was "yet another attempt by Russia to use gas as an instrument of blackmail."
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told reporters a day earlier that his country had sufficient reserves and alternative supply routes after Russia said it was suspending gas supplies to Poland under a long-term contract.
In a major speech in Warsaw on March 26, Biden told the world that Vladimir Putin should no longer remain in power amid Russia's brutal war against Ukraine.
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Source: IAR, PAP, whitehouse.gov