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Members of the EU parliament clap at the end of a videoconference speech by Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (screen) at the EU Parliament in Brussels on November 19, 2024. Photo: AFP
BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council (FAC) on Tuesday convened in Brussels to discuss a range of topics, mainly the Russia-Ukraine war.
Several top European officials who took part in the meeting spoke to Rudaw, highlighting Russian threats on their countries.
Mark Rutte, NATO secretary general, told Rudaw before entering the meeting that they are proud of Ukraine’s performance in the war against Russia - which began in February 2022.
“I cannot be more proud of what Ukraine has done to prevail being four times smaller having an economy which is only 25 of the size of the Russian economy having been able to prevail up to this moment because we in the West and others around the globe were willing to provide what was necessary to Ukraine to prevail and to prevent [Russian President Vladimir] Putin to win,” he said.
He warned that if Putin wins the war in Ukraine, the world will see an “emboldened Russia on our border.”
“I'm absolutely convinced it will not stop there. It is then posing a dire threat to all of us in the West. And that is why we have to make sure, because our values are at stake, but also our collective safety is at stake that we have to make sure that Ukraine prevails. And that is number one on the agenda today, particularly now with North Korea getting involved with this massive airstrike last weekend and the thousand days today,” he noted.
Earlier this week, Russia launched another massive attack on Ukraine, using drones and missiles. On the same day of the Brussels meeting, Putin signed a decree to lower his country’s threshold for using nuclear arms. This came after US President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use the US-supplied long-range missiles inside Russia.
Sweden, which officially joined NATO in March, believes that it is the “right” and “smart’ thing to support Ukraine.
“This also is an investment into our own security. Right now, of course, Russia's ground forces are bogged down in and around Ukraine, but Russia also have high ambitions to reconstitute their armed forces and they have a low threshold for the use of military force and their propensity to take great political and military risk,” Pal Jonson, Swedish defence minister, told Rudaw during a presser.
“So by Sweden now, of course, being inside NATO, Sweden is safer, but also NATO is stronger, and we're investing significantly also into our own armed forces. We have doubled our defence investments in five years,” he added.
Josep Borrell, High Representative for EU’s Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, told Rudaw that the Russia-Ukraine war affects everyone, not just Ukrainians.
“Look, this war affects everybody, not only the Ukrainians, not only the Europeans. It's a war with geopolitical consequences. No one can escape the consequences of this war - either because there is an energy crisis, a food crisis, or just people being killed on one side or the other,” he said.
“It has changed the world. It has started a new era. So let's face the current circumstances and making all the member states united in support of Ukraine,” noted the European official.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a controversial phone call with Putin on Monday - same day European foreign ministers met and discussed Russian threats.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius told Rudaw during the sidelines of the Brussels meeting that “no one wants to engage in war, and there isn’t one.”
“I believe that we, along with Americans and within the European Union, must seriously consider how to facilitate a ceasefire, who should be involved, and how it’s done while ensuring Ukraine's security. Firstly, it must reach a level in which negotiations can take place, and if we have to refer it to an address, it should be Putin,” he said.
Antti Hakkanen, Finish defense minister, told Rudaw on the sidelines of the same meeting that the possibility of the Russia-Ukraine war spreading to his country is not strong “at this stage.”
“But of course, we have to be prepared inside NATO and EU that we have to strengthen our defense and also the civil preparedness. But the most important thing now is to level up the support to Ukraine. And that's why this EU meeting is now important, that EU has the biggest tools to fund Ukraine's support, also the military support,” he added.
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