allies what we would do in response. texas republican senator ted cruz s legislation to sanction the nordstream 2 national gas pipeline from russia to western europe was defeated in the senate, even though a majority of senators supported it. it did not break essentially a democratic filibuster. ukraine wanted that bill to pass. how has the administration defended its decision to ukraine because we know the state department was lobbying democratic senators to vote against the sanctions. i have spoken with my ukrainian counterpart, the national security adviser of ukraine seven times in the past month. we ve talked about every aspect of this crisis, including nordstream 2. and the answer is simple. we need trans-atlantic unity in order to stand up effectively to russia, no matter what they do. and that trans-atlantic unity rests in no small part on the united states and germany coming together around a package of severe economic measures if