Russia is threatening Ukraine with a “new intervention” and putting Europe’s long-standing security architecture at risk, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday.
In a statement published online before a meeting of EU foreign and defense ministers in Brest, Josep Borrell said that the bloc must now “define what [it] can do to uphold the security order of Europe and the principles underpinning it,” which he believes is under threat.
“Russia has addressed to the United States and NATO proposals on the future of security in Europe that contravene the principles of the European security architecture,” said Borrell, the EU’s top diplomat. “They are accompanied by a military build-up on the border of Ukraine and the open threat by Russia of taking military actions if these demands are not met.”
Borrell also accused Russia of wanting to reconstitute the “Soviet geopolitical glacis” in Europe, suggesting that Moscow wants to decouple the United States and the EU for strategic reasons.