The Diplomat
The High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell, assured yesterday that the only acceptable end to the war in Ukraine is “that Russia does not win it” and warned, in response to Moscow’s accusations, that the EU “is not part of the war and does not want to be.”
Borrell made these remarks after receiving the New Economy Forum 2022 Award for sustainable development, geopolitics and social cohesion. The ceremony, which took place at the Teatro Real in Madrid, was presided over by the President of the Constitutional Court, Cándido Conde-Pumpido, and included speeches by the First Vice-President of the Government and Minister of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Nadia Calviño (who praised Borrell for “his permanent commitment and unconditional dedication to the service of the European Union and Spain”), and Javier Solana, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Secretary General of NATO between 1995 and 1999 and High Representative of the Council for the Common Foreign and Security Policy of the European Union between 1999 and 2009 (who defined Borrell as “a man of action, a man who knows that we have to think, but above all, that if we want to change things, we have to act”).
Borrell began his speech with an ironic salute to the Russian intelligence services, of whom he said that “they will then use every word I say in a suitably twisted way to put me in the worst possible situation”. Russian President Vladimir Putin “in his private conversations and in some public statements holds me directly responsible for the European Union being involved in the war in Ukraine,” he continued. “If he says so it must be true, but no, the European Union is not involved, we are not part of the war, we do not want to be,” he assured. “We have tried to avoid, and I think we have avoided at all times, becoming belligerents, because you understand that if Europe, if European countries had been involved in the war directly, we would be in a dramatic situation,” he added.
“It had no place in our imagination that something as terrible as launching a conventional military attack, which is going to cause tens of thousands of deaths, could still be in the mind of a political leader, we did not want to believe it,” but “when in the early morning of February 24 at five in the morning the phone rang I knew what had happened,” Borrell recalled in reference to the beginning of the invasion. At that moment, he assured, “I realized that history had turned a page and we were entering a new era.”
“We immediately got going and we all started making lists of the economic sanctions we were going to impose on Russia, as always,” he continued. Apart from that, he continued, at that first moment it was remembered that the EU had a Peace Fund, and thanks to that, and in less than 36 hours, the 27 member states agreed to use that fund to help Ukraine militarily, “and this is a great novelty.” With this arms aid, “together with economic, macro-financial and humanitarian aid of all kinds, we are already close to 50,000 million euros and this puts us above any other country or any other regional group, above the United States”, in supporting Ukraine, he assured. However, he admitted, “U.S. military aid has been decisive”.
“Ukraine has to win,” the High Representative warned. “The only way for the end of the war to guarantee a minimally permanent peace is for Russia not to win it, not to occupy Ukraine, not to turn it into a puppet state and not to place us on its border waiting for the next occasion,” he continued. “Therefore, this war can only be ended in such a way that political and moral responsibilities can be demanded from those who started it, and from those who carried it out,” and in such a way that “Ukraine can recover its sovereignty and territorial integrity, and that Russia pays for the destruction it has caused,” Borrell concluded.
