Germany can "guarantee" security of its energy supplies even without Russian gas or oil, Economy Minister Robert Habeck claimed Thursday.

"We will buy more gas, but also coal from other countries," he told ZDF national broadcaster, declaring that Germany was too dependent on Russia for energy supplies. It is worth noting that Russian energy supplies make up for about half of Germany's gas and oil.

Habeck said he expected oil and gas prices to continue rising for now in light of the Russian operation in Donbass, hoping prices would later fall back down to a manageable level.

The German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy announced that the certification process for the Nord Stream 2 pipeline was stopped after being temporarily halted by the Federal Grid Agency in November 2021. 

Habeck Thursday reiterated his ministry's announcement, saying he did not see the pipeline as being able to go online in the short or medium term.

On Tuesday, German Chancellor Olf Scholz announced the suspension of the certification of Nord Stream 2 just after Russia's recognition of Lugansk and Donetsk as independent republics.

Nord Stream 2 had become a Western tool to pressure Russia in the Ukraine crisis, but Europe cannot turn its back on Moscow due to its dependency on the federation for energy.

Biden claims to be working on preventing surging gas prices

The US government will take appropriate steps, releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to prevent gas prices from surging amid concerns about global energy supply shortages as the West sanctions Russia's economy and affects its ability to deliver supplies to other nations.

"As we respond, my administration is using every tool at its disposal to protect American families and businesses from rising prices at the gas pump," he said.

"And the United States will release additional barrels of oil [from strategic reserves] as conditions warrant," Biden told a White House press conference.

US President Joe Biden played the sanctions card against Russia another time during a White House press conference amid tensions between Washington and Moscow over the former's intention to expand its NATO alliance eastward through Ukraine.

Moscow's military operation in Ukraine is not a beginning of a war, but rather an attempt at curbing a global one, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said following Western condemnations of Moscow's operations.

Russia has for months been warning of the threat posed against it by NATO's attempts to expand eastward, which happened simultaneously with an increase in NATO military activity along Russia's borders, and batches of lethal weapons being sent to Ukraine, prompting Russia to request security guarantees from the West. Washington failed to provide the guarantees.

The consecutive western sanctions on the Russian federation come after President Vladimir Putin authorized a special military operation in Donbas on Thursday morning, citing neo-Nazi NATO allies moving closer to his nation's border.