Europeans must grasp potential Russian troop presence on Polish border - Borrell
Photo: Head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Europeans must understand that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin won't stop if he succeeds in Ukraine. In that case, Russian troops could be on the Polish border, according to the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, during his speech at the University of Oxford.
"Today, Putin is an existential threat to all of us. If Putin succeeds in Ukraine, he will not stop there. The prospect of having in Kyiv a puppet government like the one in Belarus, and the Russian troops on the Polish border, and Russia controlling 44% of the world[‘s] grain market is something that Europeans should be aware of," he said.
Borrell reminded that he was in Donbas before the start of the full-scale Russian invasion in January 2022. At that time, the European Union did not provide weapons to the country at war. As noted by the European diplomat, the EU's response to the Russian invasion was strong and "united in order to provide Ukraine with the military capacity they need to resist."
"Now Putin sees the whole West as an adversary. He made that clear in many of his speeches. Everything, every day is being said and repeated on Russian TV stations: “The West – the whole West, the global West - is our enemy”. And they act accordingly - through disinformation, poisoning our information environment," the diplomat added.
According to Borrell, Russia is trying to interfere in the democratic processes of the EU, including European elections.
Help to Ukraine from the EU
It is worth noting that the European Union has provided financial assistance to Ukraine to support its budget since the start of the full-scale war, introduced over 10 packages of sanctions against Russia, provided protection for Ukrainian refugees, and financed military aid.
Currently, discussions are underway on the use of frozen Russian assets in the European Union. For example, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, proposed to allocate the proceeds from Russian assets to weapons for Ukraine.
However, according to Western media reports, some EU countries have opposed such an initiative.
